Reducing project permitting complexity and timeframes and ensuring that duly authorized initiatives do not get halted by legal challenges in the construction phase. That is vital to helping ensure that Chile leverages its strong competitive edge in the green hydrogen sphere, a hydrogen and desalination conference hosted by German industrial giant Siemens was told. Siemens CEO Roland Busch was upbeat on Chile’s green hydrogen prospects, citing state backing for sector development but said speed was of the essence along with the need to push hard for private capital given the country’s relatively limited subsidy firepower. Improving permitting is a “mega-challenge” that needs tackling, former Chilean energy minister Juan Carlos Jobet said. Major projects vital to decarbonization and climate change adaption, such as power lines and desalination plants, can take multiple years to get permitted and then can potentially be halted by legal challenges just as work commences. &nsp In terms of overall environmental protection, Jobet added that halting construction actually hampers energy transition and decarbonization efforts: “We have to build many things.” For years, Chile’s permitting system has often been branded complex and slow – issues coming into sharper focus as the country works to attract investment in green hydrogen, which typically involves multi-component projects comprising electrolyzers, gas-treatment units, desalination plants and midstream infrastructure. Never before has a project of this magnitude entered the system, said Bernardo Larraín, deputy chairman of the board at local generator Colbún. He echoed concerns, including impact on financing, surrounding permitting. Work is underway in Chile on a bill to overhaul sectoral permitting and establish green hydrogen as a project category in the environmental review system. In parallel, permitting officials have been working on evaluation guides for green hydrogen projects a th government carries out community-engagement work linked to an under-construction green hydrogen roadmap. Economy minister Nicolás Grau said Chile needed to balance maintaining its green hydrogen industry “pole position” with planning to ensure the nation obtains as many benefits as possible from investment. Grau said that green hydrogen projects can be submitted for evaluation section-by-section, as long as accompanying documentation explains the full scope of the initiative. TECHNOLOGY, PROJECTS Busch meanwhile cited the role digital technology will play in future plants, adding that Chile is attractive to Siemens also because of its position in the global green hydrogen vanguard. “Technology will be the name of the game,” he said, referring to the need to integrate different processes and ensure seamless production. “What we can bring to the party is digitization.” Under a green hydrogen production strategy, Chile is aiming to have 5GW of electrolysis capacity built nd uder development by 2025 and 25GW by 2030. An associated green hydrogen roadmap, designed to help transition projects from drawing board to construction, is due this half. Based on June data from industry association H2 Chile, around 50 green hydrogen projects for a total electrolysis capacity of roughly 11GW have been announced publicly and are chiefly at the feasibility and pre-feasibility stages. Many projects, particularly those targeting the export market, would be ramped up in subsequent phases, multiplying initial capacity. Sixty-two percent of projects are geared to producing renewable hydrogen, 30% green ammonia, 4% methanol and 4% synthetic fuels. Four out of five first-phase/pilot plants that have been awarded electrolyzer acquisition grants from state development agency Corfo are planned for brownfield sites, hence covered by existing environmental licenses. The five are due online by the end of 2025 and could be among the first to enter production. Developers are attrated b Chile’s world-class wind and solar resources and robust institutional framework.
