Phase · 01
Conceptual review
Inherited concept design reviewed against site conditions at Bouzas, safety envelope, offtake profiles and dispensing pressure. Gaps flagged, assumptions hardened before any basic work started.
Project · Hidrógeno Julio Verne · 2022 →
“Water will be the coal of the future.” The Mysterious Island · 1874
Bouzas · Port of Vigo
42°17′11.97″N · 8°39′7.17″O
Green-H₂ generation
& dispensing · Bouzas
& dispensing · Bouzas
Hidrógeno Julio Verne
Production · Dispensing · Cold Ironing
Project
Hidrógeno Julio Verne
H₂ production + dispensing
Client
Univergy
Renewable energy · promoter
Location
Bouzas · Port of Vigo
Galicia · Spain
Electrolyser
1.4 MW · Alkaline
Green hydrogen
Commissioning
2024
Per project plan
willbö scope
Concept review → site
All disciplines · FEL2–FEL3 + DO
Case study · Green H₂ · Port energy
A working green-H₂ plant. In the port Verne wrote about.
Hidrógeno Julio Verne is a 1.4 MW alkaline electrolyser and dispensing plant at Bouzas, inside the Port of Vigo — supplying green hydrogen to port logistics, heavy road transport, the naval cluster, and cold-ironing operations. Univergy promotes it. willbö engineers it end-to-end, across every discipline.
The project sits on ground that has meaning. In 1870, Verne set a chapter of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in the very bay where the plant is now rising. Four years later, in The Mysterious Island, he wrote that water would one day be the coal of the future. In Vigo, in 2024, it is.
1.4MW
Alkaline electrolyser
570kg/day
H₂ @ 350 bar
213t/yr
Green hydrogen delivered
2,872tCO₂/yr
Emissions avoided
>40/day
Heavy-duty refuellings
What willbö did
Concept to site. Every discipline, one engineering office.
Phase · 02
Basic engineering
Process definition, PFDs, P&IDs, heat & material balances, equipment sizing, plot plan at Bouzas, HAZID and preliminary classified areas. Built the backbone that carried through to detail.
Phase · 03
Detail engineering
Full detail across process, piping, civil/structural, electrical, instrumentation & control. Classified-areas per ATEX. Safety studies (HAZOP, QRA inputs, explosion consequence) taken to approval.
Phase · 04
Site supervision
willbö on site during construction and commissioning — discipline leads on the ground, punch-list closure, vendor drawing review against as-built, and support through start-up of electrolyser, storage and dispensing.
Why Julio Verne matters to us
This is our home port. The plant sits a short walk from willbö's office in Vigo, in a bay that has defined the city's relationship with the sea for centuries. Every offtaker — the port's forklifts, the Vigo bus fleet, the naval cluster, the ships that plug in at quay — is a neighbour. We don't engineer this one from a distance.
Offtakers · who the hydrogen is for
Four demand streams. All within the port perimeter.
01 · Port logistics
Forklifts, container handlers, light port vehicles
The fleet that actually moves goods around Bouzas — replacing diesel with H₂ at point of use, inside the port.
02 · Heavy road transport
Buses, urban-waste trucks, long-haul HGVs
>40 heavy-duty refuellings per day at a public dispensing point — Vigo buses (made in Ourense) and regional HGVs are the anchor.
03 · Naval sector
Ferries, fishing, shipyards
Vigo's naval cluster — ferries, fishing fleet, the yards — as a direct customer for H₂ and by-product O₂ for welding and oxy-cutting.
04 · Cold ironing
Zero-emission shore power for docked vessels
H₂ as fuel for cold ironing — ships berthed at Vigo draw clean shore power instead of running auxiliary engines.
Promoter & host
100% developed in Galicia. Twelve-plus partners and entities.
Julio Verne is the work of a Galician ecosystem — technology centres, the naval cluster, the automotive cluster, the university, small and medium operators on the ground. Univergy promotes it. The Port Authority hosts it. willbö engineers it.
Promoter · Client
Project brand
Host · Port Authority
Local impact · what the plant means beyond the fence
A port that decarbonises itself. With engineering made next door.
2,872tCO₂/yr
Emissions avoided
Per year, once Julio Verne replaces grey fuel across its four offtake streams — the equivalent of taking roughly 1,400 diesel cars off the road.
6M€
Project investment
Committed to Galician suppliers, equipment and labour — with >2.4 MWp of co-located PV feeding the 1.4 MW electrolyser.
12+
Collaborating entities
Naval, automotive, EERR, the university, technology centres — a regional consortium, not a single vendor chain. Direct employment: 4 permanent + 20 temporary. Indirect: 7 + 35.
Location
Bouzas.
At the edge of the bay
where it started.
The plant is inside the port perimeter, metres from a working quay. willbö's Vigo office sits a short walk away. We have been on this ground since long before the first P&ID was drawn.
42°17′11.97″N · 8°39′7.17″O
“…the English ships reached Vigo bay on 22 October 1702. Admiral Château-Renaud… when he realised the convoy's riches would fall to the enemy, set fire to and scuttled the galleons, which sank with their immense treasures.”
“Well then, Professor Aronnax — we are in Vigo Bay, and you will come to know its mysteries.” Captain Nemo · Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea · 1870
Plant particulars
Julio Verne · at a glance. Per project plan · Bouzas.
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Project | Hidrógeno Julio Verne | Green-H₂ production & dispensing plant |
| Client / Promoter | Univergy | Renewable-energy developer |
| Host | Autoridad Portuaria de Vigo | Site inside port perimeter (Bouzas) |
| Location | Bouzas · Port of Vigo | 42°17′11.97″N · 8°39′7.17″O |
| Electrolyser | 1.4 MW · Alkaline | Green hydrogen at point of production |
| H₂ output | 570 kg/day · 213 t/year | Dispensed at 350 bar |
| Dispensing capacity | >40 refuellings/day | Heavy-duty focus · public access |
| PV generation | >2.4 MWp | Co-located renewable feed |
| CO₂ avoided | 2,872 t/year | Across all offtake streams |
| Offtake uses | Port logistics · HD transport · Naval · Cold ironing | Plus industrial O₂ as by-product |
| Commissioning | 2024 | Per project plan |
| willbö scope | Concept review · Basic · Detail · Site supervision | All disciplines · Process · Piping · Civil · EI&C · Safety studies |
Closing
“I believe that water will one day be employed as a fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable. Since the coal reserves will one day be exhausted, we shall heat ourselves by means of water. Water will be the coal of the future.” Jules Verne · The Mysterious Island · 1874
More case studies
Green H₂ is not theory for us. It is engineering we deliver.
Julio Verne is one of several H₂ and e-fuel engagements — a 10 MW green-H₂ plant, a 2 MW H₂ production/storage/distribution plant, a 220 MTPD e-methanol plant and a 300 MTPD green-NH₃ plant. Each with willbö leading disciplines end-to-end.
See industrial projects →Planning a green-H₂ plant?
Talk to us.
Electrolyser integration, ATEX-classified areas, port and heavy-duty dispensing, cold-ironing interfaces — bring the site and we'll walk you through the engineering.
willbo@willbo.es →