October 8 was International Green Hydrogen Day and, to mark the occasion, Energy and Mining Biminister Juan Carlos Jobet spoke about the significant progress that Chile has made in this area. He emphasized that “when we launched the national H2 strategy, there were 20 projects in the portfolio. Today, this number has tripled to over 60 projects at different stage of development.”
Minister Jobet explained that, of the 60 projects in the portfolio, “25% will begin operating and be producing green hydrogen before the end of this decade.”
He emphasized that Chile is globally at the forefront of the development of this new industry, “not only because Latin America’s largest project is being built in our country, in Magallanes, but also because the first green hydrogen molecule has already been produced for the mining industry and because we have announced the first project to inject hydrogen into the gas network, among other things.”
Minister Jobet also drew attention to the Energy Ministry’s initiatives to promote the domestic development of this new industry, such as the publication of three guides to enable and facilitate the introduction of technologies to develop H2 as a fuel, as well as its use in mining and transport applications. “We’ve streamlined the process for getting permits to implement pilot projects,” he added.
Mr. Jobet also referred to Chile’s first green hydrogen accelerator, launched by the Energy Ministry alongside energy efficiency NGO Agencia de Sostenibilidad Energética this year. Its role is to incentivize hydrogen use in a wide range of applications by coordinating with companies and institutions, facilitating the identification of complementary roles between them and capacity building to enable early-stage development of hydrogen-use projects.
In the international sphere, Mr. Jobet highlighted that Chile has made major progress this year with positioning itself as an international leader of this new industry. “In just a few months, we’ve signed seven international agreements to work collaboratively with different countries and promote green hydrogen in Chile. They include the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. I must also highlight the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU), signed early this year with the Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest, and with the Port of Singapore, to open up Asian markets.”
Finally, Minister Jobet emphasized that Chile is involved in global initiatives to promote hydrogen development, including H2 Global, CEM/MI, IPHE and P4G.