Highlights from the 1st Hydrogen Americas Summit

David Livingston, Senior Advisor, Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, U.S. Department of State expressed his belief that the US will be leading on the green hydrogen and create collaborations that pave the way to shared value for our collective climate, energy, and jobs goals.

Hydrogen infrastructure in the US is already developing quickly. Total electrolyzer capacity consists of 25 separate installations with at least 120kW capacity each. The DOE also has a number of demonstration projects underway through its H2@Scale program. There is a need to pair supply and demand to accelerate the technology further, according to Sunita Satyapal, Director of the Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Technologies Office at the DOE. “No single technology is the answer and we need to address all the sectors,” she says. The DOE is targeting $2/kg for production and $2/kg for delivery and distribution for transport applications. For industrial applications, the department is targeting $1/kg for industrial and stationary power generation.

Major companies in Latin America are advancing on their plans to become major hydrogen exporters. While Chile is at the forefront of the decarbonization race, with hydrogen as the main energy component, Colombia also has the wind and solar potential needed to produce green hydrogen. Its capacity could be as high as 20-25GW, with much of it in the north of the country. Most of that power could be used to produce green hydrogen for export, suggested Juan Ricardo Ortega, President of the Grupo Energia Bogota. Alejandro Stipanicic, president of Uruguay’s state oil company ANCAP, told the panel his firm also sees hydrogen as crucial to its transition to a low-carbon and sustainable energy future, complementing the move into biofuels. “Hydrogen is the way we see ANCAP in the future,” he said.