Uruguay offers green hydrogen plan

• Uruguay's government today offered its draft green hydrogen road map, unveiling a vision for the country to have some 10 GW of electrolysers and come to be a net exporter of affordable hydrogen and its derivatives in the decade after 2030.

The government stated that residential hydrogen represents an opportunity to construct a sector with a prospective to produce around USD 2.1 billion (EUR 2bn) in incomes annually by 2040, mostly thanks to exports. It is also a possibility for Uruguay to achieve a deep decarbonisation of its economic climate, after prospering in making renewables account for around 97% of the nation's energy mix in 2017-2020, according to the paper.

As hydrogen methods go, Uruguay's likewise sees the roll-out adhere to three phases. In the initial phase, 2022-2025, the country will certainly focus on preparing law and the advancement of initial pilot projects. This is expected to convert into 200 MW to 500 MW of renewables capacity in growth and 50 MW of electrolysis for small-scale hydrogen production.

The 2nd phase, from 2026 to 2030, will target national development, electrolysis projects ranging between 100 MW and 200 MW, and very first exports. This duration should see the development of some 2 GW to 4 GW of renewables and 1 GW to 2 GW of electrolysis capacity.

In the 3rd phase, after 2030, hydrogen is created on a larger scale, with even more projects targeting the domestic hard-to-decarbonise markets and exports. This is when Uruguay anticipates to have around 20 GW of renewables and 10 GW of capacity to create hydrogen and its derivatives.

Uruguay has great potential to develop quality and low-cost renewables-- solar and onshore and overseas wind-- and adequate water and biogenic CO2 to support the growth of green hydrogen and e-fuels originated from it. The levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for onshore wind and solar in Uruguay is expected to come to between USD 11/MWh and USD 19/MWh by 2030, and involve a variety of USD 11/MWh and USD 15/MWh in 2040.

The overseas wind LCOE will be between USD 26/MWh and USD 28/MWh by 2030, and decrease to USD 21/MWh one decade later.

Based upon these prices and capacity factors throughout the nation, Uruguay might accomplish the levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) of USD 1.2/ kg to USD 1.4/ kg in the western area, and between USD 1.3/ kg and USD 1.5/ kg in the eastern region, for scales above 500 MW by 2030.

These prices would place Uruguay on the checklist of globe's top hydrogen merchants, beside Chile, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Namibia and Australia, according to the draft guidebook.

The paper will be open to public scrutiny until August 15.