The Basque Country presents the Net-Zero Basque Industrial Super Cluster initiative at the “Technological alliances for decarbonisation” in Houston (USA)

The SPRI Group, Petronor, Energy Cluster and Tecnalia are in Houston this week representing the Net Zero Basque Industrial Super Cluster at the event on  “Technological alliances for decarbonisation”, organised by the World Economic Forum and the Electric Power Research Institute.

The Net-Zero Basque Industrial Super Cluster is one of the ten regional initiatives invited to form part of the  World Economic Forum’s project to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

The event has gathered together the community of clusters that form part of the WEF “Transitioning Industrial Clusters towards Net Zero” initiative, in order to share projects and experiences, analyse challenges and opportunities, and drive the technology alliances needed to accelerate the transition towards decarbonisation of the different industrial sectors.

The Net-Zero Basque Industrial Super Cluster delegation will take part in different sessions over the three days, during which – apart from presenting the initiative and its main advances – it will highlight the development of industrial and technological opportunities for the local value chain as one of the differential aspects of the initiative.

In that regard, special mention should be made of the fact that the Basque initiative has been selected to participate in the opening session of the event, when it will inform the delegates of the Net Zero Basque goals, partners and approach, and the benefits that the collaboration between industries and stakeholders will generate regarding the competitiveness of local industry and job creation.

In particular, Petronor is taking part as a speaker at one of the sessions on technology and will explain how the challenge of the decarbonisation of its processes has become an opportunity both for the company and for the Basque Country, through the Basque Hydrogen Corridor, with a public-private partnership strategy that envisages the development of projects throughout the hydrogen value chain.

During the “Walkabout session”,  the delegation will present industrial and technological development projects, such as the Basque Hydrogen Corridor, Bideratu – the artificial intelligence analytical tool,  (Elkartek project), or the  H-Steel project led by Sarralle (Hazitek project), that is developing equipment and expertise to use green hydrogen in steelmaking processes.

During this week, the Basque delegation will hold bilateral meetings to share experiences and expertise with representatives of EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) in the areas of green hydrogen, energy efficiency and electrification.

Presented by the Basque Government’s Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference-COP26 held in Glasgow on 3 and 4 November, the “Net-Zero Basque Industrial Super Cluster” is led by the Basque Government and with Petronor- Repsol and Iberdrola as the main partners in order to work together in the decarbonisation of the energy consumption of Basque industrial clusters.

With nearly 80% of the world economy now committed to achieving net zero emissions, there is a pressing need to act to meet this ambitious goal; it is essential that the industrial regions, particularly those with high energy consumption – and, therefore, high CO2 emissions associated to that consumption – play a key role in compliance of those commitments. The Net-Zero Basque Industrial Super Cluster seeks to convert that decarbonisation goal into an industrial and technological development opportunity in the Basque Country, by driving the existing capacities and generating new ones.