Moeve Breaks Ground on a $1.2 Billion Green Hydrogen Plant in Southern Spain
Moeve, the Madrid based energy company formerly known as Cepsa, began construction on September 18, 2026 of Onuba, a green hydrogen plant in Palos de la Frontera, near Huelva in Andalusia, marking the first phase of what the company calls the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley (The Corner, 2026). The project carries an investment of roughly one billion euros, about 1.2 billion dollars, for this first phase alone, part of a wider 2.4 billion euro commitment that also covers a second generation biofuels facility on the same industrial site (The Corner, 2026). Moeve is majority owned by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment Company alongside the Carlyle Group, and the refiner has spent recent years divesting oil production assets as it pursues an eight billion euro transformation into lower carbon businesses (Hydrocarbon Processing, 2026).
Onuba will house 300 megawatts of electrolysis capacity, with an option to expand by another 105 megawatts, and the plant is designed to run in part on a dedicated self consumption photovoltaic array built alongside it (ESG Today, 2026). Once operational, the facility is expected to produce roughly 45,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year and cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 250,000 tonnes annually, a reduction Moeve compares to eliminating all passenger vehicle emissions across the provinces of Huelva, Cadiz, and Jaen combined (Moeve, 2026). Moeve describes Onuba as the anchor of a broader hub for green molecules, with the full Valley initiative targeting as much as 405 megawatts of electrolysis across the region and construction expected to support more than 8,000 direct and indirect jobs (The Corner, 2026).
Ownership has evolved as the project moved from decision to groundbreaking. When Moeve took its final investment decision in March 2026, it did so alongside Masdar, the Abu Dhabi renewable developer, and Enalter, a hydrogen platform majority owned by Enagas Renovable, each taking minority stakes while Moeve retained 51 percent control (Moeve, 2026). By the September groundbreaking, financing partners for the build out included Hy24, a dedicated clean hydrogen investment fund, and COFIDES, the Spanish state backed development finance institution, reflecting the layered financing large hydrogen projects increasingly need to reach construction (Hydrocarbon Processing, 2026). Spain's government is also underwriting part of the project, having awarded 304 million euros to the Andalusian Hydrogen Valley through its Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, funded by the European Union's NextGenerationEU program, and Brussels has designated the initiative a Project of Common Interest (Moeve, 2026).
The hydrogen is not destined for a single use. Moeve plans to route early output toward decarbonizing its own nearby chemical operations, replacing fossil derived feedstock with green hydrogen produced onsite, while the wider Valley is meant to supply renewable fuels for aviation, road transport, and shipping, along with feedstock for fertilizer production (ESG Today, 2026). Chief executive Maarten Wetselaar framed the economics bluntly, noting that natural gas prices driven up by geopolitical instability have made green hydrogen newly competitive with conventional grey hydrogen, and that producing hydrogen domestically means Spain no longer depends on shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz for its energy security (Briefs, 2026). He has separately pointed to a carbon price near 150 euros a tonne as the level at which green hydrogen becomes durably competitive without subsidy by 2030 (Briefs, 2026).
So what does one refiner's hydrogen plant in Andalusia tell us about where the hydrogen economy is headed. It shows a financing template maturing at a scale that has eluded the sector for years, pairing a strategic corporate investor with a specialized hydrogen fund, a state development bank, and direct EU grant support, the way large power and transport infrastructure has long been financed rather than resting on one balance sheet. Just as important is the choice of buyer. Routing initial output into Moeve's own chemical plant sidesteps the chicken and egg problem that has stalled green hydrogen projects worldwide, where developers build capacity before any buyer commits to purchase output at a workable price. A captive customer next door removes that uncertainty for phase one, even as Moeve still aims to sell later volumes into aviation, shipping, and fertilizer markets that remain less settled. Wetselaar's framing around the Strait of Hormuz points to a shift in how European industry now values energy produced at home, not only for its carbon profile but for the supply security a disrupted gas market has made newly relevant to boardrooms.
Real uncertainties remain before Onuba proves out as a model others can copy. Neither Moeve nor its partners have disclosed the electrolyzer supplier in full, nor the price at which hydrogen will be sold to the chemical plant or later transport customers, both of which will decide whether the economics hold once EU subsidies eventually taper. A completion date for phase one has not been made public, and scaling to the full 405 megawatt Valley ambition will require investment decisions not yet taken. The project also leans on public money, with 304 million euros in EU grants covering a share of the buildout, a dependency that raises whether green hydrogen at this scale can eventually stand alone. Still, a major energy company breaking ground on a billion euro plant with a captive buyer already in place is a more concrete signal than another feasibility study, and it gives the hydrogen economy a live example of how to get shovels into the ground.
References
Briefs. (2026). Moeve kicks off 1 billion green hydrogen build in Andalusia. https://www.briefs.co/news/moeve-kicks-off-1-billion-green-hydrogen-build-in-andalusia/
ESG Today. (2026). Moeve to build $1.2 billion green hydrogen plant in Spain. https://www.esgtoday.com/moeve-to-build-1-2-billion-green-hydrogen-plant-in-spain/
Hydrocarbon Processing. (2026). Spain's Moeve says upended energy markets revive green hydrogen, as EUR1-B project breaks ground. https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2026/09/spains-moeve-says-upended-energy-markets-revive-green-hydrogen-as-1-b-project-breaks-ground/
Moeve. (2026). Moeve will begin construction of the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley. https://www.moeveglobal.com/en/press/moeve-investment-andalusian-green-hydrogen-valley-onuba-huelva
The Corner. (2026). Moeve breaks ground in Huelva on Europe's largest green hydrogen project. https://thecorner.eu/companies/moeve-breaks-ground-in-huelva-on-europes-largest-green-hydrogen-project/127499/
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