(L-R) Claude Turmes, Luxembourg’s Minister for Energy; Duarte Cordeiro, Portugal's Minister of Environment and Climate Action;
Credit: MEA
On Monday 29 May 2023, Luxembourg’s Minister for Energy, Claude Turmes, visited Portugal for the signing of a declaration of cooperation and participated in the Lisbon Energy Summit on Tuesday 30 May 2023.
During this visit to Lisbon, Minister Turmes and his Portuguese counterpart, Minister Duarte Cordeiro, signed a declaration of cooperation defining a framework for cooperation on renewable energies, including renewable hydrogen, between Luxembourg and Portugal. The Portuguese Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate, Ana Fontoura Gouveia, were also present for the occasion.
According to Luxembourg's Ministry of Energy and Spatial Planning, Portugal has potential in renewable energies and aims to become an exporter of this energy, mainly in the form of renewable hydrogen or its derivatives. Consequently, a large electrolyser project to produce renewable hydrogen is planned at the port of Sines.
The development of a European corridor for the import of renewable hydrogen to the Benelux region is reportedly in the works. Luxembourg, which has experience with different cooperation mechanisms (such as the cooperation with Denmark contributing to the development of an artificial energy island in the North Sea), wants to engage in Portugal to contribute to the exploitation of renewables at optimal cost and pursues the concrete interest of participating in the development of a European corridor for the import of renewable hydrogen to the Benelux region. Concretely, the ministry noted that Luxembourg supports the creation of a renewable hydrogen corridor between the seaports of Sines and Rotterdam. From Rotterdam, green hydrogen could be transported to Luxembourg, via the port of Mertert, for example. On the sidelines of this meeting, and directly related to this maritime corridor for green hydrogen, a joint letter with Portugal and the Netherlands and addressed to the European Commission was also signed.
Portugal and Luxembourg agreed to analyse the options for the renewable hydrogen production and its export to Luxembourg. According to the ministry, the revision of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan, as well as the revision of the European directive on renewable energies constitute the "favourable" framework that led to this joint declaration signed on 29 May.
On 30 May 2023, Minister Claude Turmes took part in the Lisbon Energy Summit. Representatives of the governments of Portugal, the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark and Luxembourg discussed the different approaches of states to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels by accelerating the deployment of renewable energies.
