“The new renewable energies, basically the green hydrogen (H2)has a precious opportunity in Latin America and in our countries”, affirmed the president Luis Lacalle Pou in his speech at the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
The president had already made a measurement recently in his Accountability before the General Assembly of the Parliament of Uruguay, on March 2, where he defined the “second energy transition” as one of the government’s priorities.
Lacalle Pou’s decision to put the issue on the agenda is not accidental: the green hydrogen industry It has been taking firm steps in Uruguay, as in other nations in the region, and represents an important opportunity to increase the country’s exports.
Green hydrogen would generate $2.1 billion in revenue
He Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM)which carries out the strategy for the energy transition together with the Ministry of Environmentestimates that green hydrogen can generate a turnover of $2.1 billion by 2040.
The H2 is a fundamental part of the transition as it offers great investment opportunitieswhich surround the 6 billion dollars. For this, the institute Uruguay XXI is in search of the arrival of new investors. The companies that intend to invest in Uruguayan green hydrogen are Spanish, German and Nordic.
Investment in H2 would represent a development of new skills and trades in the sector, which would give Uruguay greater generation of jobs, skills and new professions. Also, it would mean a development in adjacent sectors such as routes, trains and ports they would give higher jobs accordingly.
According to the specialized media Surtidores, there are already nine companies that were selected to exploit green hydrogen in Uruguay: Ingener SA with its project “H2U-Transporte Verde”, Khairos who presented “Green H2 Production for Forest Transport”, and the companies Hydrogenium_Oops, CIEMSA, Linde, MontevideoGas, H2U-Transporte Verde and South American Company of Electrical, Mechanical and Public Works Companies SA.
The domestic market as a whole and the exports of green hydrogen and its derivatives would represent for Uruguay an opportunity for annual turnover of 300 million dollars per year by 2030 and by 2040, a turnover of 2.1 billion dollars. This also implies that this industry is located in the 2% of projected GDP and generate more than 34,000 employees direct by 2040.
The three phases to develop the green hydrogen sector in Uruguay
The government proposes three phases to be fulfilled in the periods 2022-2024, 2024-2029 and 2030-2040, respectively. The first stage seeks the development of hydrogen in the domestic market, as well as lay the foundations for an export market. To achieve this, it is proposed to encourage the first projects that use this type of energy, start with the specific regulation of the sector and the incentive for research and innovation from the Hydrogen Sector Fund released this year.
The second phase has the objective of taking hydrogen one step higher in the domestic sector, while seeking to start operating in the first export projects. While, in the third, and final phase, he waits consolidate in the domestic marketat the same time that it trusts that advances in logistics and port infrastructure will allow climb in the export market and make their way in the generation of hydrogen derivatives.
Source: Ambito
