The state government of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and the company Enerfín do Brasil, from the Spanish group Elecnor/Enerfín, signed, this Thursday, at the Piratini Palace, a memorandum of understanding for the development of a potential green hydrogen project.
It is the second memorandum with this purpose – in December last year, the state closed a partnership with the company White Martins.
“It is a great opportunity for the state. We are mobilizing all the government’s forces to lead and build conditions for RS to have this vocation leveraged. We seek the companies to present the reasons why we see in RS this opportunity for the implementation of the green hydrogen plant and to build relationships that allow us to prove the feasibility of this investment in RS,” said the governor Eduardo Leite.
RS has undertaken studies to make a transition to decarbonization through the use of green hydrogen, creating a new branch in the economic matrix of high technology and added value. The state already operates with 80% of energy from renewable matrix, with about 20% from wind energy, whose potential for expansion is still great.
“The signing of this memorandum is a gesture toward the future. The available port, the wind energy potential, our industries, and also the diverse uses that hydrogen and ammonia can have in other activities, such as the fertilizer industry, give our state a differentiated opportunity in terms of green hydrogen production before other states. And it is in the search of showing and having the proof of this capacity that we are signing this memorandum of understanding so that we can develop, together, studies and projects in this direction,” explained Leite.
The use of green hydrogen is in accordance with the commitment made by RS to neutralize carbon emissions in the state by 50% by 2030, a goal also assumed by Brazil in the Paris Agreement. In November 2021, governor Eduardo Leite attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), in Glasgow, Scotland, to reaffirm the state’s commitment. In addition, in October, the governor visited the headquarters of Enerfín, the wind energy subsidiary of the Elecnor Group, in Madrid, Spain.
Enerfín is a subsidiary of the Elecnor group, a Spanish company with proven experience in the development, installation, and operation of wind power plants in several countries. In Rio Grande do Sul, Elecnor implemented the Complexo Eólico de Osório (Osório Wind Complex), Latin America’s first large-scale wind farm, an international reference in renewable and sustainable energy generation.
The text of the memorandum defines as objectives the development of a potential green hydrogen project in RS, the identification of opportunities for the development of the project in the Port of Rio Grande, the establishment of the intention to find opportunities to jointly develop a green hydrogen production project, to search for other opportunities related to the energy area or electrification of industries linked to the green hydrogen project; and to enable cooperation and synergies between the parties to identify possible regulatory and fiscal barriers and opportunities for the development of the green hydrogen project.
The director of new business of Enerfín for Latin America, Marco Antônio Morales highlighted the confidence in the partnership and in the potential of the state to develop the project. “We believe that this energy revolution that the world needs will happen, and we are delighted to do this for the first time here in Rio Grande do Sul. We want to implement this project here for all the possibilities of domestic consumption and export, and we want to reaffirm the confidence that the group has in the state,” he said.
The place seen as an option to receive the project is the port of Rio Grande, in Rio Grande. It is the largest industrial district in RS, with 2,580 hectares, available retro-areas, a strategic and privileged position, which presents synergy with productive chains. In addition, it has logistical advantages, such as outflow of production and reception of raw materials. In 2019, before the pandemic, the flow was more than 3,000 ships.
“We had an excellent meeting at Enerfín’s headquarters in Madrid, Spain, which culminates today in the signing of this memorandum. We were looking for companies with expertise in renewable energy generation that could add to the development of this project. We have a well-consolidated strategy and, together with the municipality of Rio Grande and the Port of Rio Grande, a project to transform our port into a starting point for this project,” detailed the Chief Secretary of the Civil House, Artur Lemos, who coordinated the Secretariat of Environment and Infrastructure during the first two years of his administration.
The document was signed by governor Leite, by secretaries Artur Lemos (Civil House), Guilherme Souza (Environment and Infrastructure deputy) and Edson Brum (Economic Development), by the director of Inland Ports of Portos RS, Bruno Almeida, and by the director of new business of Enerfín for Latin America, Marco Antônio Morales.
