Chile publishes green hydrogen project evaluation criteria

Chile’s environmental review service SEA has introduced a set of green hydrogen project evaluation criteria.

The country has multiple projects in the development phase, targeting both the domestic and export markets.

A central pillar of the framework involves developers outlining where the project is positioned within their respective value chain, so that the evaluation is limited to the scope of the project in question.

Projects targeting local offtakers and leveraging existing infrastructure and know-how are likely to lead the charge, followed by gigawatt-scale export facilities from the second half of the decade.

No utility-scale green hydrogen project has entered the environmental review system yet.

Read the SEA document here, in Spanish.

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Chile and Uruguay – among countries in South America’s green hydrogen vanguard – have signed energy partnership agreements with Germany.

Both South American nations are working to decarbonize and are eyeing opportunities in the sphere of exports of green hydrogen and its derivatives.

During a trip to Germany, Chilean energy minister Diego Pardow inked an agreement to expand an energy partnership agreement between the two countries.

“This will make it possible to advance in a strategic planning process between both countries that allow reaching carbon neutrality in different productive spheres such as electricity generation, the housing sector, mobility, industry, among others,” the Chilean energy ministry said in a statement.

Officials also announced a scholarship program under which Chileans can participate in hydrogen-related training programs at a German technical institution. 

Pardow, who visited a Siemens Energy electrolyzer plant, was also due to ink hydrogen-related agreements with Hamburg port. Earlier in the week he signed similar accords in the Netherlands. 

Uruguay, meanwhile, signed an energy partnership agreement with Germany covering green hydrogen, energy efficiency, electromobility and battery storage, Uruguay’s energy ministry said in a statement. The accord spans technical cooperation and knowledge sharing. 

Uruguayan energy minister Omar Paganini said in a statement: “This agreement reinforces Uruguay’s commitment to decarbonization and Germany’s recognition of our track record and potential. Uruguay can develop a central role as a supplier of new renewable energy sources, with a clearly complementary profile with European countries.

"Today, the diversification of suppliers is strategic in geopolitical terms, and the countries of the South, with a surplus of renewable energy, are part of the solution.”

With future green hydrogen demand forecast but a lack of renewable energy resources and spare land, Germany – like other EU countries – will likely become a net green hydrogen importer.