Colbún will produce green hydrogen to supply cooling systems at its Nehuenco power plant

PRESS RELEASE from Colbún
September 25, 2023

(Machine translation of the original release, issued in Spanish)

As part of its ongoing work to modernize its combined cycles and thus face the challenges of the energy transition, Colbún SA announced that it will develop a green hydrogen production project (H2V) to supply the cooling systems of its Nehuenco thermoelectric plant, located in the Valparaíso Region.

The project includes the construction of its own electrolyzer and a small solar plant - with an installed power of 100 kw -, which will allow the generation of green hydrogen in Nehuenco and thus replace the gray hydrogen that is currently used for the cooling process of Units II. and III. For the system to operate, only around 30 liters of water per day will be required.

The initiative marks a milestone for the Company, since they will be the first green hydrogen molecules it will produce. In addition, it will be the first green hydrogen project in a generation plant in Chile. Once in operation, it will avoid the emission of nine tons of CO ₂ per year.

Colbún's Green Hydrogen manager, Juan Pablo Fiedler, highlighted that this project will be an opportunity to deepen technological knowledge, strengthen the relationship with suppliers and continue the search for options to improve the performance and efficiency of the use of green fuel.

“At Colbún we are convinced that green hydrogen will have an increasingly relevant role in many industrial processes. This project arises precisely from that vision, that is, identifying which are our own industrial processes where we can use green hydrogen. And although Nehuenco will be the first, we have already detected other processes where we can advance in this same direction,” said the executive.

The project will begin construction in early 2024 and production is estimated to begin towards the end of the same year. Colbún is already in the process of quoting equipment such as electrolyzers, H2 storage tanks, photovoltaic panels and control systems, among others.

Other H2V projects

In January of this year, Colbún signed an alliance with the Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo to develop green hydrogen projects to produce ammonia. This agreement will allow both companies to jointly study the feasibility of developing industrial projects in the regions of Antofagasta and Magallanes aimed at producing green ammonia based on hydrogen produced with renewable energy.

The year 2022 was also an active year in H2V matters for Colbún. In addition to creating the Green Hydrogen Management, the company formed a consortium with several actors and the Santiago Airport to explore uses of this fuel in its facilities, seeking for it to become the first airport in Latin America to operate with green hydrogen and accelerate your decarbonization goal. Added to this is an alliance established in 2021 with Komatsu Cummins for H2V projects in electromobility.

The Company hopes to continue promoting the development of H2V - both in projects for domestic consumption and for the export market - particularly through alliances with producers and potential consumers of this fuel.

Regarding its growth plans, Colbún seeks to build more than 4,000 MW by 2030 through a plan to develop wind, solar, and storage projects. Currently, the company has a portfolio of renewable projects in early and advanced stages of development, totaling around 1,000 MW.