Source: AFP
Chile is launching a European hunt for investors in solar, wind and green hydrogen technologies as it tries to free up its copper mines and other fossil fuel-dependent industries.
Marcos Kulka, CEO of H2Chile, a hydrogen association of 102 public and private companies, traveled to Europe to outline his government’s energy strategy amid renegotiations of an EU-Chile trade and investment agreement.
Kulka told AFP that, “given the resources it has,” Chile could become carbon neutral by 2040 — 10 years ahead of the global net-zero goal set in the Paris Climate Change Agreement .
Speaking on the sidelines of the Hyvolution energy trade show in Paris this month, Kulka said 24 percent of Chile’s emissions reductions would come from hydrogen and its derivatives.
Hydrogen, which emits only water vapor when consumed, is touted for potential use in polluting heavy industries such as steel, metals, cement and chemicals, as well as shipping and transportation.
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But producing it on a mass scale is a big challenge as the cost remains high and the infrastructure is lacking so far.
It is considered a “green” fuel when it is produced using electricity generated from renewable energy sources to break down water molecules.
Hydrogen can also be produced through a more controversial method using natural gas, so-called “blue hydrogen,” which must be combined with carbon capture equipment to be considered climate-friendly.
The International Energy Agency said last month that only seven percent of the projects announced worldwide to use renewable energy to produce hydrogen this decade are expected to be operational by 2030.
But Kulka said Chile “could become one of the cheapest hydrogen producers in the world.”
The country plans to shut down its coal-fired plants by 2040 and replace them with renewable energy sources that will be used to produce green hydrogen.
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Chile is the world’s leading exporter of copper, a metal critical to the energy transition as it transports electricity.
But mines are also greenhouse gas emitters, as their operations rely on fossil fuels.
To reduce copper’s carbon footprint, the country can rely on solar power near copper mining areas in the north and wind in the south, Kulka said.
He said Chile needs $60 billion in investment by 2050 for its green hydrogen plans.
‘Irresponsible’
The low cost of renewables has attracted the interest of Austria Energy, French energy giants Engie, TotalEnergies and EDF, as well as several German, Dutch and Norwegian companies looking to import green hydrogen into Europe.
For now, however, Chile’s installed green hydrogen capacity remains low at just two megawatts, with a goal of reaching 25 gigawatts by 2030, Kulka said.
Source: AFP
Current global installed capacity stands at 1.1 GW, according to the Hydrogen Council.
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Christian Sagal, a Chilean diplomat and investment commissioner in France, echoed warnings from activists that hydrogen alone is not enough for the energy transition.
He said it would be “irresponsible to say that green hydrogen will avoid” climate-related disasters such as the wildfires that have killed more than 130 people in Chile in recent weeks.
Chile’s green hydrogen plan is just “one of the possible answers” to “decarbonizing (the country’s) economy and contributing to much-needed reductions in global emissions.”
“Fast move”
But Kulka argued that the country needs hydrogen to reduce emissions from heavy mining trucks, explosives used in mining, shipping and the chemical industry.
He said 64 industrial projects involving green hydrogen have been announced, with investments totaling close to $5 billion by 2025.
Chile plans to produce between one and three million tons of hydrogen within the next six years.
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Chile is renovating its port infrastructure so that current oil and gas facilities used for imports can be upgraded to export ammonia, which can be converted into hydrogen.
“We are moving fast — a lot of infrastructure is going to be built,” Gloria Maldonado, director of Chile’s national oil company ENAP, told AFP.
As Chile negotiates with the EU, 100 human rights and environmental associations have warned EU lawmakers in a joint statement against signing a new trade and investment deal.
The text “is strategic for the EU to gain access to Chilean raw materials, but it should not be done at any price,” said Mathilde Dupre, co-chair of the Veblen research group, which signed the letter.
He said that “the project offers very favorable standards of protection for foreign investors, without ever imposing anything on them” in terms of obligations to respect human and social rights in Chile or the country’s environment.
Source: AFP