• The European Union approved funding of 10 million euros for the ECO-GATE project, which is directed and coordinated by GAS NATURAL FENOSA, as leader of a consortium made up of natural gas operators, technology and service providers, end users and market knowledge and promotion experts from Spain, Portugal, France and Germany.
• The project will involve the construction of more than 20 gas stations along the Atlantic and Mediterranean corridors of the road network in Spain, France, Germany and Portugal.

The European Commission has approved funding of 10 million euros for the development of the European project ECO-GATE, a global action plan for the development of mobility with CNG (compressed natural gas) and LNG (liquefied natural gas) in Europe, led by GAS NATURAL FENOSA through the distributor Gas Natural Madrid, which is in charge of directing and coordinating the project.

ECO-GATE es el acrónimo de European COrridors for natural GAs Transport Efficiency. El acuerdo de financiación (grant agreement) ha sido registrado con el número INEA/CEF/TRAN/M2016/1359344.

The more than 20 planned natural gas filling stations will be located in each of the four countries involved in the project: Germany, France, Portugal, and Spain. The approved funding will be distributed among these four countries. Spain will receive funding to develop filling stations in Barcelona, ​​Burgos, Madrid, Murcia, Salamanca, Irún, Tordesillas, La Junquera, Córdoba, and Cartagena, among other cities.

The European ECO-GATE project is one of the most ambitious in the conventional and renewable natural gas vehicle market, with infrastructure deployment along the Atlantic Corridor and the Mediterranean Corridor through new technologies and innovative solutions.

ECO-GATE will enable the rapid and massive deployment of this alternative fuel thanks to a significant reduction in unit cost and a better understanding and greater knowledge of customer needs.

The European Union funding is due to the fact that the project contributes greatly to compliance with European Directive 94/2014 and to the development of the natural gas market for mobility as an alternative fuel.

SOLTEL's responsibilities in ECO-GATE

For Soltel, this represents the development of two solutions with a significant innovative component within the framework of this project:

1. Demand Analysis System. This platform, designed for gas station managers, assists in decision-making to optimize product stock levels by determining expected demand using available data and various contextual information. It will also be able to analyze demand characteristics in detail.

2. Asset Management Platform. This platform allows for the planning and control of infrastructure or industrial process asset maintenance based on criticality (criticality-based decision-making). The system is entirely focused on providing software tools and a mature methodology adapted to the needs of CNG/LNG stations, and it also complies with the recent ISO 55000 standard.

About the ECO-GATE consortium

ECO-GATE is driven by a consortium made up of more than 20 companies from Spain (24), Portugal (3), France (1) and Germany (1).

The following natural gas operators participate: Gas Natural Madrid, Enagas Transporte, Dourogás Natural, Endesa Energia, Agas Siglo XXI, Galp Energia, EDP, Repsol, Gas Natural Europe, Inversora Melofe and Molgas Energía.

The following are part of the technology and service providers: Cetil Dispensing Technology, Soltel IT Solutions, Fundacion Cidaut, Evarm Innovacion, Universidade de Tras-Os-Montes e Alto Douro, Fundación Imdea Energía, Audigna, Ghenova Ingeniería and Madisa,

As end users: Correos, San José López and EMT Palma,

And finally, as experts in market knowledge and promotion, the following are part of the group: Gasnam, Port Authority of Gijón, Port Authority of Huelva, University of Santiago de Compostela and Soulman Insightful Thinking.

About natural gas vehicles

Compressed natural gas (CNG) plays a fundamental role in sustainable mobility, improving air quality in our environments and helping us meet the environmental commitments we face as a country. It reduces air quality reference pollutants that affect health to almost zero: it eliminates nearly 100% of NO2 emissions and 96% of particulate matter (PM), key factors in human health.

Furthermore, natural gas is a technologically mature alternative fuel, whose use has been widespread for decades in various countries around the world, especially in Latin America, and in many European countries such as Italy (one million vehicles) or Germany (half a million vehicles).

"The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Soltel IT Solutions and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union."«