Port-la Nouvelle (Aude), June 29, 2023 – Independent renewable energy producer Qair and Arec (Agence Régionale Energie Climat) Occitanie have announced the launch of construction of Hyd’Occ, a renewable hydrogen production unit. The foundation stone was laid today in the presence of Pierre-André Durand, Prefect of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, President of the Occitanie region, and Céline Vachey, Regional Director of ADEME Occitanie. The project was presented to nearly 200 people, including local and national elected representatives, project partners and representatives from the socio-economic world.
Following the speeches, Hyd’Occ’s funders symbolically signed a Toyes, a work by local artist Patrick Chappert Gaujal, representing the foundation stone which will adorn the future production unit.
Created in July 2020 by Qair and Arec Occitanie, Hyd’Occ is part of an ambitious regional energy resilience project for the Occitan coastline. It combines renewable energies with the production of green hydrogen. The unit will eventually produce 6,000 t/year of green hydrogen via a 50 MW electrolyser powered by local renewable energy. The plant will supply all energy, mobility and industrial uses with green hydrogen within a 250 km radius, including :
- Harbor uses, such as powering the dredger Hydromer, under the control of the Occitanie Region, for harbor maintenance, or powering generators;
- Mobility uses, in particular for fuelling distribution stations that will supply heavy goods vehicles and refrigerated trailers, as well as light commercial vehicles.
5 green hydrogen distribution stations
The Corridor H2 project aims at decarbonizing heavy mobility through the use of hydrogen, by laying the foundations for a zero-carbon north-south European corridor. To achieve this, Hyd’Occ is planning to produce 20 MW of renewable hydrogen and deploy five hydrogen distribution stations to refuel 100 trucks.
Located in Perpignan, Narbonne, Saint Jean de Vedas, Cautelnaudary and the Eurocentre logistics zone, these high-capacity stations (between 600 and 1,200 kg/day) will be supplied from Port-la Nouvelle by Hyd’Occ, due to come on stream in 2024.
Supplying HydrOMer, the first hybrid hydrogen dredger project
Following the public tender won by Qair and Arec Occitanie and the agreement signed at the end of 2022, Hyd’Occ will supply the HydrOMer dredger with renewable hydrogen via HDS (High Density Storage) containers.
This dredger will be used to maintain the depths of the fishing port of Le Grau du Roi and the commercial ports of Sète-Frontignan and Port-La Nouvelle, as well as managing the coastline of the Occitanie region.
About Hyd’Occ
Hyd’Occ is the result of an association between renewable energy producer Qair and AREC Occitanie and will build the first large-scale renewable hydrogen production unit in Port-La Nouvelle, France.
Hyd’Occ is a winner of the ADEME’s “Ecosystèmes territoriaux hydrogène” (Hydrogen Territorial Ecosystems) call for projects and the “Corridor H2” call for projects backed by the Occitanie Region, the European Investment Bank and the European Union via the European Interconnection Mechanism (EIM), and has been accredited by the Pôle Mer Méditerranée.
About Qair
Qair is an independent renewable energy company developing, financing, building, and operating solar, wind, waste-to-energy, storage and green hydrogen production assets.
With 1.7 GW of capacity in operation or construction, the group’s 730 employees are developing a portfolio pipeline of 34 GW in 20 countries across Europe, Latin America and Africa. Our ambition is to become an independent leader in responsible energy.
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