Women in a Legal World launches subcommittee on Biomethane, Hydrogen and E-fuels within its Energy Committee

Women in a Legal World, a non-profit organisation born in Spain and constituted by women professionals in the legal sector, has launched its first Sub-Commission, dedicated to the Biomethane, Hydrogen and E-fuels sector, within the framework of its Energy Commission, whose heads are Irene Agúndez Lería, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Iberdrola Spain and Director of the SSJJ of Regulation, People and Services, Alicia García Lillo, Senior Legal Counsel at Galp, and Beatriz Pérez Alonso, Senior Associate at Clifford Chance.

The Biomethane, Hydrogen and E-fuels Sub-committee is led by Clara Alcaraz, Regulatory, Administrative and Competition Partner at KMPG Abogados and Alicia Juristo, Director of the Legal Department at Enagás Renovable, a leading company in the development of green hydrogen and biomethane projects, with María Delia García Ramos, M&A Legal Counsel at Solarig, a leading renewable energy company, as coordinator Young.
The objective of this sub-committee is to raise awareness among WLW members and the rest of the agents active in the renewable energy sector about the existence and utilities of these new energy vectors, which are renewable gases and alternative fuels.

Alicia Juristo said: ‘We are very excited about the creation of the first Subcommittee within the Energy Commission of Women in a Legal World specifically dedicated to Biomethane, Renewable Hydrogen and E-fuels. We are grateful for the support of our partners and are confident that this joint effort will contribute to the further development and acceptance of these innovative technologies’.

Clara Alcaraz then commented: ‘We think this is the right time to launch this initiative, coinciding with the publication of the long awaited EU gas package (renewable, natural gas and hydrogen), the recently published Order for the development of the biofuels promotion mechanism and the modification of the CNMC Circular establishing the methodology and conditions for access and capacity allocation in the natural gas system’.

The presentation event took place on Monday at KMPG’s headquarters in Madrid, with a round table discussion entitled ‘Renewable Gases: New regulations, Challenges and Opportunities’, and featured Milagros Avedillo, Deputy Director of Natural Gas at the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC); Maribel Rodríguez Olmo, Director of hydrogen business development at Repsol; Luis Iglesias, Director of operations and hydrogen business development at Enagás Renovable; and Jose Luis Gil, General Manager of Renewable Gases at Naturgy.

The debate, moderated by Clara Alcaraz, Partner at KMPG Abogados, focused on the main barriers, challenges and challenges faced by the main players in these sectors, as well as the way in which regulation can help the definitive take-off of these sectors in Spain and the way in which the project promoters themselves can publicise the positive externalities of these projects for the communities in which they are implemented.