According to SERC Chile researcher Francisco Gracia, it is possible to identify some significant barriers to the massive deployment of green hydrogen-based solutions.
“Chile has some of the best solar and wind resources in the world, which offers unique potential for generating clean, affordable energy,” said the principal investigator at SERC Chile, Francisco Gracia, who outlined the three main challenges to promoting green hydrogen in Chile: economics, technology, and the regulatory framework.
The researcher, who is also the director of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, and Materials at the University of Chile, identified these three main areas for improvement in the country in order to pave the way for a large-scale deployment of green hydrogen-based solutions.
The first of these is economic: “Given the high investment costs involved, which have delayed investment decisions because the final demand for H2V is not entirely clear.” In this regard, he maintained that “we need the conviction and decisive drive of political and executive authorities to establish efficient coordination that will facilitate and ensure the necessary investments are made, consolidate demand, and move decisively toward a position of global leadership in this area, as we are already falling behind on the global H2V stage.”
The second challenge is technology, “but it is not a barrier related to the individual equipment or technologies involved in the H2V value chain, but rather the lack of evidence and experience with integrated green hydrogen systems that are fully renewable or sustainable.”
Finally, the principal investigator at SERC Chile explained that “there is a regulatory challenge in determining how substances that have traditionally been used as inputs in the chemical industry (hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, among others) now also serve a dual purpose as energy inputs.”
“Solar hydrogen production is emerging as a way to harness and store energy”
According to the Ministry of Energy, in Chile, the main sources of capacity (net MW) come from solar (54%; 2,177 MW) and wind (37%; 1,498 MW) technologies. “Thus, given the availability of this resource in our country, solar-powered green hydrogen has the potential to be one of the cheapest in the world,” said Francisco Gracia.
In this regard, he added that “the photovoltaic solar energy industry in Chile is already deployed on a large scale. However, the challenge remains to coordinate and take advantage of the limited hours of solar radiation—also known as the plant factor—to ensure efficient and optimized use of the electrolyzers for as long as possible.”
“Today, a great deal of solar energy goes unused due to constraints in the transmission systems, which is why solar hydrogen production is emerging as a way to harness and store energy,” he said.
Achieve the goal: To be the leading exporter of H2V
“The Pacific Ocean is Chile’s gateway to the world,” said Francisco Gracia, principal investigator at SERC Chile. This gives the country an advantage in becoming the world’s leading exporter of green hydrogen.
“Our country has already signed treaties that provide preferential trade terms with the Asia-Pacific region. In particular, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and California are emerging as the top destinations for hydrogen-derived product exports. In addition, agreements are already in place with the ports of Rotterdam and Hamburg, which would allow Chilean energy products preferential access to the European market,” said García.
Along these lines, Gracia noted that there is “a wide range of export options, but we must position ourselves as leaders in the H2V economy in order to secure preferential terms compared to other potential competing producers.”
