Colombian government to fund 10 green and blue hydrogen study projects

The Minister of Mines and Energy, Diego Mesa, accompanied by the President of the Republic, Iván Duque, announced the results of the first hydrogen call, led by FENOGE, which approved the financing of 10 projects for a value of $6,570 million.

The objective of this call was to finance pre-investment studies of projects in pre-feasibility or feasibility stages throughout the value chain of green and blue hydrogen in the country.

“This has been the Government of the Energy Transition and renewable energies in Colombia. When our Government began, the country had a precarious 28 MWp in installed capacity and today we have, between completed projects and those about to be delivered, 2,800 MWp and 4,500 MWp more will come in the next two years. This means going from 0.2% to 20% of Colombia’s energy matrix coming from renewable sources”, said the President of the Republic, Iván Duque Márquez.

This Call for Proposals was developed in four phases: the first phase was based on the socialization of the call for proposals and reception of projects; the second phase involved the classification, analysis and prioritization of each of the expressions of interest based on criteria of quality in structuring, innovation potential, scalability and replicability; the third phase was the publication of a list of eligible projects; and the last phase was the execution of the pre-investment studies of the prioritized projects.

“This call was a success because, despite being the first to finance hydrogen projects in the country, we received a total of 58 expressions of interest. It is important to highlight that 60% of the initiatives presented were in green hydrogen production, 12% in conditioning and transportation, and 28% in hydrogen uses, which, in short, is a positive sign for the Colombian energy sector.

This type of calls are aligned with the Hydrogen Roadmap, which shows that the country has the potential to become the main exporter of zero and low-emission hydrogen in the region,” said the Minister of Mines and Energy, Diego Mesa.

The projects presented are concentrated in the Central zone of the country in a 42.11%, Caribbean zone in a 28.07%, Eje Cafetero in a 10.53% and in the rest of the country in a 19.29% and the companies chosen in this first call were VATIA S.A. E.S.P., Busscar de Colombia S.A.S., Energal BioGas S.A.S., Solenium S.A.S., H2NOSTRUM, H2 Andes S.A.S., TE H2 SAS, Sociedad De Gestión Grupo TW Solar Colombia S.A.S. Universidad de Antioquia.

With the announcement of the results, the pre-investment studies will begin to be executed as of this moment, and subsequently, the preliminary results of these studies will be shared with the country.

Likewise, the design of innovative and flexible investment and financing mechanisms that accelerate the execution of green and blue hydrogen production initiatives in the country through the allocation and multiplication of reimbursable and/or non-reimbursable resources that contribute to its implementation will be proposed.

“It is with facts how we contribute to the country and this call was only the first of several initiatives to be launched by FENOGE in the framework of ‘More Hydrogen Colombia’, as part of the hydrogen implementation strategy planned for the country. We will accompany the projects in the process, we will continue working to be the facilitators of the development of the hydrogen market through the channeling of resources and investments that contribute to the financial closure of the projects and adding the energy transition. With great enthusiasm we see the potential of Colombia as a relevant actor in this new market dynamics that hydrogen proposes for the energy sector,” said the executive director of FENOGE, Katharina Grosso.

This first call could be carried out thanks to the support received by the Ministry of Mines and Energy from the Ministry of Economy and Climate Protection of Germany through its GIZ Agency, the Korean Government represented by the Korea Eximbank, as well as allied experts in hydrogen, who from their knowledge were responsible for evaluating each of the projects presented, such as Colombia Inteligente and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with support from USAID.