Green hydrogen means great opportunities for Uruguay in the future, taking into account the decrease in non-renewable energy sources throughout the world. However, it also has several challenges ahead, such as the need for a social and political consensus for the project to prosper, to be an example for other countries that are on the same path and the care of water consumption, one of the most important issues. currently hot.
According to the green hydrogen roadmap, carried out between the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM), by 2040 this industry would generate a turnover of 2.1 billion dollars. To achieve that goal, an investment of US$6 billion is needed in the country where several Nordic, German and Spanish companies have already expressed their intentions.
However, along with progress come challenges that Uruguay will have to face in this promising new industry. For this reason, Ámbito spoke with Dr. Ramón Méndez Galain, former National Director of Energy and in charge of the decarbonization of the energy matrix in Uruguay.
According to Galain, the most important challenge that Uruguay has regarding green hydrogen has to do with doing it well and as quickly as possible, like all technological, industrial and productive development. “Green hydrogen is something innovative where we don’t have many parameters to copy or learn since it is under development. And at the same time, if we want to get there and be able to compete, we have to go fast. Therefore, we cannot wait for experiences to develop in other places, ”he explained.
In this sense, he stressed that he is not worried about starting from scratch since it is something that Uruguay has done in the past with the decarbonization of the energy matrix without having any model to follow. “When the energy transition was made, there was no country that had almost 100% renewable energy or that had, at the same time, 40% wind energy, as we have today,” Galain explained. “Having to innovate and having to do something that doesn’t exist in the world doesn’t worry me, because we already did it,” he added.
Another of the challenges that the country will have to face, according to Galain, has to do with Uruguay knowing how to take advantage of economic opportunities by adding value and that the industry does not become an extractivist business of the great world powers. “Let it not simply become an opportunity where some investors from foreign countries take the wind and the sun bottled up in the form of hydrogen without leaving any added value,” he said.
To this, he added the importance of the country itself being able to take advantage of not only economic opportunities but also knowledge. “That it is not simply one more extractivism without adding value and knowledge, but that it is used to add value in Uruguay itself and that it helps to transform and diversify the economy, I think that is the most important challenge,” Galain remarked.
The role of the state
According to Galain, the Government’s road map has a difficulty and it is related to the importance that, beyond government intentions, there is a social and political consensus. “You have to generate a level of collective construction and that transcends the authorities on duty. This is essential in a project that aims to be long-term and that will require actions from various governments over time, ”she explained.
On the other hand, Galain highlighted the importance of governance, of what leadership is like, of what stakeholder participation is like and what needs to be done to make things actually happen. “That is what worries me the most because it is what is not being seen, there is a very technical roadmap, very tentative, but I am confident that it will be able to be generated,” he said.
Source: Ambito
