“For a few years, Uruguay is studying and advancing in the development of green hydrogen“, said the coordinator of the Environmental Unit of the MIEM and leader of the Green Hydrogen Project, María José González, in dialogue with Coffee & Business. At present, even, the country is closing its road map to advance in this matter. “It is a document that defines the future steps to promote the green economy in the domestic market, as well as the international one.”, he elaborated.
Along these lines, the expert stressed that green hydrogen and its derivatives have the potential to generate export products, with which Uruguay can position itself. To obtain these goods, “the renewable resources that we have are used and even renewable energies add value to be able to produce hydrogen,” explained González.
Last month this document was presented to different institutions, such as the Ministry of the Environment, the political parties and the Congress of Mayors, with the aim of receiving contributions, generating instances of exchange and being able to begin build a clearer “State policy” around this initiativeasserted the expert.
Parallel to these more general guidelines, different actions are being carried out, such as the development of a competitive process, together with the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) and the Technological Laboratory of Uruguay (LATU), with the aim of be able to finance a first pilot project on green hydrogen.
Secondly, “Progress is being made in creating the necessary conditions to attract investment to the countryGonzalez assured. This guideline includes the development of an appropriate regulatory framework, which aims to generate capacities at the national level to “be able to meet the strong ambition that the roadmap has set out,” he argued.
“Uruguay already has conditions for both resources and infrastructure so that new projects can be generated”, indicated the expert and stressed the need to review the regulatory framework, as well as the incentives offered by the country to achieve them.
“This matter is of international relevance and, even, the most developed countries are betting heavily on promoting this type of project. Today it is not a competitive enough product,” said the expert, but asserted that this situation will change significantly, due to the efforts of the strongest countries in the field, such as Germany and the Netherlands, to redirect their policies towards a more sustainable.
“It is necessary to have a more global view if we want to strongly promote this roadmap, which has an important focus on exports,” said González.
The leader of the Green Hydrogen Project pointed out that they are already meeting with various companies that intend to bet on this solution at the local level. “They are already doing their studies to see the feasibility of Uruguay to see how viable it is to produce hydrogen in the country,” Gonzalez explained. The expert also added that, although none confirmed her arrival in the country, one company “has already presented the environmental location permit”.
The origins of the companies that have their eyes on Uruguay are diverse: Spanish, Nordic and German. Asked about the size of the investments that these organizations are willing to disburse in the country, González said that she cannot reveal details in this regard, but that she can. These are very important amounts. In any case, he indicated that, despite having “much smaller” investments, the disbursements to develop theThe pilot plans are around US$ 20 million. “There is interest in developing medium-scale projects, which are considerably more important than that figure,” acknowledged González.
The expert highlighted that in this process large international companies are linking with local organizations, which seek to develop projects related to hydrogen.
The situation in Uruguay is not different from that of the rest of the countries. “Green hydrogen and its derivatives are in a development phase all over the world, and the scales of the projects that are developed in other places are also still small.”, indicated Gonzalez.
“Uruguay is gradually accompanying this development to be among the main countries and thus continue along this path that began with the first energy transition,” the expert concluded.
María José González will be part of the Innovation and New Business summit organized by El Observador and supported by Latin Securities, Hey Now, ANII, Itaú, Andersen and Coca-Cola Femsa. The event will take place on October 11.
