US company Glenfarne Energy Transition and South Korea’s Samsung Engineering are not only jointly developing a green ammonia project in Chile – Green Pegasus – but also analyzing third-party projects, BNamericas was told.
Green Pegasus is among a portfolio of more than 40 publicly announced green hydrogen initiatives in Chile conceived by both local and foreign investors, a tally that does not include those still under wraps.
Green Pegasus, planned for northern Chile, involves a power complex of up to 2GW of renewables capacity and production facilities that could manufacture an estimated 259,000t of green ammonia for export a year.
Glenfarne Energy Transition CEO and founder Brendan Duval said that an objective of the partnership, along with analyzing the feasibility of Green Pegasus, was studying projects proposed by other companies, with a goal of deciding, in early 2024, which to advance. Potential options include purchasing projects or helping develop them.
In an interview wth BNamericas that will be published this week, Duval outlined what would trigger a final investment decision.
“We’re project developers, so we’re happy to take the risk to find the land, do the engineering studies, do the permitting,” Duval said. “Ultimately, to move from development to construction, we would need to see long-term contracted revenues that meet our rate of return hurdles. So absolutely, offtake is king. But that’s not a question for development, that’s a question for construction. We’re happy to develop into that risk.”
Chile is betting big on green hydrogen and its derivatives as foreign investment drivers. The government has published a green hydrogen strategy, and an associated roadmap – currently in the community engagement and consultation phase – is due to be finalized in August.
Projects targeting both the export market and local offtakers have been proposed. Smaller-scale projects, leveraging local demand and existing infrastructure may get built first, follwed by gigawatt-scale export complexes – chiefly in the country’s northern and southern regions – in the second half of the decade. A demonstration plant that produces synthetic gasoline for export from green hydrogen is already built and operating in far-south region Magallanes.
Chile is blessed with world-class solar and wind resources, along with undeveloped land in favorable zones, among requisites for economically feasible projects.
