As part of the roadmap drawn up for green hydrogen in the country, the possibility of turning the country into an exporter of the new e-fuel has been contemplated, which would begin to be produced with the surpluses of renewable energy generation (wind and solar) produced by the projects that are growing in the country.
The announcement was made by the Minister of Energy, Diego Mesa, during the development of the Latin America Energy Week, an event organized by Siemens Energy.
“Decide how we are going to transport and transform this energy into other products. We are reviewing because we want Colombia and the region to be a power to be able to supply energy in the long term”. The minister highlighted that work is being done to achieve an interconnection with Panama and improve the current interconnection with Ecuador.
The event brings together the main experts of the Latin American energy sector to discuss the challenges of the sector in the face of the energy transition of the countries that are migrating towards renewable or clean energies.
Thus, 15 Latin American countries, including Colombia, have the commitment to make their energy matrixes 70% renewable (this includes water resources and solar and wind sources, among others) by 2030. In the case of Colombia, the renewable energy matrix already exceeds 70% between water projects and the incorporation of non-conventional renewable energies (wind and solar), which in the last four years alone increased from 2% to 12%.
To take advantage of the energy surpluses that may arise from the generation with non-conventional projects (wind and solar), countries are focusing efforts on the generation of green hydrogen, an e-fuel that will revolutionize the energy market worldwide.
In this sense, André Clark, vice president for Latin America of Siemens Energy, said that green hydrogen is a real alternative and Latin America offers enormous advantages in the production of this fuel. “It is not only a solution to an immediate problem, but a potential to effectively transform the industrial policy of the continent into a more efficient and environmentally friendly policy”.
Ariel Yépez-García, head of Energy and Infrastructure of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), highlighted that there are priority issues that must be addressed to achieve the expansion and consolidation of the energy matrix in Latin America, such as the diversification of financial sources, capital mobilization, legal frameworks, and even the risk appetite of the private sector to achieve financing in local currency and private capital in infrastructure.
From the private sector, the panelists agreed in calling on governments to make progress in regulatory matters and agreements that will allow them to consolidate energy integration in the region, which will also consolidate energy security, provide lower prices to consumers and especially become global energy suppliers.
