Iberhidrógeno's green hydrogen plant in Lerma (Burgos) authorized

The Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Environment, and Environmental Policy has granted environmental authorization to Iberhidrógeno, S.L. for a green hydrogen production plant in the municipality of Lerma (Burgos). The decision is formalized in Order AGR/1098/2026, of October 22, published in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León no. 208, of October 27, 2026, with the official reference BOCYL-D-27102026-208-18 and case number 560-23-AABU. The order concludes the administrative process and is signed in Valladolid by the regional minister Joaquín Antonio Pino.

The authorization is granted under heading 4.2 of Annex 1 of the consolidated text of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Law —chemical industries, gas manufacturing plants and, in particular, hydrogen— and with the CNAE classification C2059 (manufacture of other chemical products). The competent body is the head of the environmental ministry, a competence attributed by Decree 2/2026, of June 13, on the restructuring of the regional ministries of the Junta de Castilla y León.

The procedure began on January 17, 2023, when the company submitted the application, and it has a favorable urban planning report from the Lerma City Council. The Directorate General for Infrastructure and Environmental Sustainability submitted the project for public consultation via an announcement in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León no. 103, of May 29, 2024, without any allegations being received. None were presented during the hearing process opened on April 24, 2026.

25 megawatt PEM electrolysis in plot 621

The facility, named IBERLERMA H2, is located in plot 621, parcel 5324, with a parcel area of 78.18 hectares and 13,290 square meters of construction. The owner is Iberhidrógeno, S.L., with NIF B67632299 and registered office at Paseo Marqués de Zafra 5, Madrid.

• Process: water electrolysis with proton exchange membrane (PEM), with a capacity of 25 MW.
• Estimated production: between 2,000 and 4,000 tons of hydrogen per year, depending on the completion of the supply through a power purchase agreement.
• Oxygen: 31,152 annual tons, which will be vented or packaged for commercialization.
• Storage: 2 tons of capacity, out of a total of 2.238 tons of hydrogen.
• Electricity consumption: 133,968 annual GWh.
• Water consumption: 87,600 cubic meters per year, extracted via wells.

Self-consumption wind and solar park with zero discharge

The plant will be powered mainly by renewable electrical energy generated at its own facilities—a wind farm and a solar photovoltaic plant planned within the project scope—which will supply the electrolyzer directly under a self-consumption scheme. A grid connection is also planned as backup for periods when renewable generation is insufficient. The generation facilities occupy part of plots 05041, 05318, 05319, 05324, 05325, 05326, 05331, and 15039 of polygon 621.

The conditions prohibit discharge into inland waters: the rejects from the treatment plant, estimated at 120,000 liters per day (43,800 cubic meters per year), will go to evaporation ponds, two of 520 square meters each. The authorization integrates prescriptions on atmospheric and noise pollution, waste and contaminated soils, protection of soils and groundwater, and the conditions of the environmental impact statement.

The activity is classified as potentially soil-contaminating (heading 35.21, gas production), therefore the owner must submit a preliminary status report to the Territorial Environmental Service of Burgos within a maximum period of two years. Hazardous waste generated is below 10 tons per year and non-hazardous waste is below 1,000 tons. Any action within the riverbed protection zone will require prior authorization from the Duero Hydrographic Confederation.

Five years to start and two months to appeal

The owner will have a period of five years from the publication of the order to start the activity, which must be previously communicated via a responsible declaration. The environmental impact statement of the project, also promoted by Iberhidrógeno, S.L., was issued by resolution on November 13, 2025, and published on November 21, 2025, and affects the municipalities of Lerma and Quintanilla de la Mata.

An optional appeal for reversal may be filed against the order within one month before the same body, or a contentious-administrative appeal may be filed before the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Castilla y León within two months, both counting from the day following its notification.

The authorization clears the final environmental step of a project that had been in processing for nearly four years in the Arlanza region and which combines renewable generation, chemical production, and a zero-discharge model—three fronts subject to monitoring by the territorial environmental services of Burgos.

Source: Official Gazette of Castilla y León, no. 208, of October 27, 2026, section I.D Other Provisions, page 145 (official reference: BOCYL-D-27102026-208-18).