From May 6 to July 12, a major public consultation is being organized around the BarMar project, a significant energy infrastructure project aiming to connect Barcelona to Fos-sur-Mer via a dedicated underwater pipeline for transporting renewable hydrogen. This initiative is part of a broader European dynamic at the crossroads of climate, industrial, and energy challenges.
The consultation will begin in Gruissan on Wednesday, May 6. So what is the objective of the BarMar project? First, it aims to address two strategic priorities for Europe: reducing carbon emissions from industry and strengthening the continent’s energy sovereignty. Already used in many industrial processes, renewable hydrogen is expected to play a central role in the development of cleaner industrial sectors, especially in steelmaking, chemistry, and heavy transportation.
BarMar is a crucial link in the H2med corridor, a vast hydrogen transport network designed to connect Portugal, Spain, France, and Germany. By facilitating carbon-neutral energy exchanges between these countries, this corridor will help structure a true European hydrogen economy.
An infrastructure of magnitude
The BarMar pipeline, with a diameter of one meter, will span approximately 400 kilometers under the Mediterranean Sea. It will be capable of transporting up to 2 million tonnes of hydrogen per year, a significant volume that reflects the ambition of the project. The proposed route currently lies at a depth ranging from 50 to 120 meters, away from the French coast, in order to minimize impacts on coastal areas and sensitive ecosystems.
In the interest of transparency and citizen participation, a wide-ranging public consultation is being held. It is overseen by the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP), with the support of three independent guarantors responsible for ensuring the quality and impartiality of the discussions.
The public is invited to learn more and contribute in several ways: in person, through 25 meetings organized along the Mediterranean coast, from the Spanish border to Marseille (public meetings, guided tours, conferences-debates); remotely, via webinars and live-streamed meetings, accessible especially through Zoom; in writing, via an online participation platform or paper registers available in town halls.
Three public meetings will be live-streamed online simultaneously: on May 6 at 6 p.m. in Gruissan as the opening event; on June 17 in Canet-en-Roussillon; on July 6 in Fos-sur-Mer. Note that the day after the opening public meeting in Gruissan, on May 7, two roundtable discussions will delve into the geopolitical and technical aspects of the project.
All practical information, presentation documents, and participation modalities are available on the project’s official website.
