MADRID: Spain will allocate 6.9 billion euros ($7.8 billion) to renewables, green hydrogen and energy storage in the next two years and aims to attract another 9.45 billion euros in private funding under its COVID-19 recovery plan, the government said on Tuesday.

Speaking after a weekly cabinet meeting where the 16.3 billion euro energy plan was approved, Energy and Environment Minister Teresa Ribera said the investments should create more than 280,000 jobs.

“We believe it is possible to create a very important package of instruments that we want to start presenting as early as next week,” she said. Some 1.55 billion euros of the state funding will be channelled into the development of so-called green hydrogen.