2023 HYDROGEN FORECAST LATAM

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in Earth’s atmosphere. It can be utilized as fuel, an energy carrier, and industrial raw material to store and transport energy. When produced from renewable energy, such as solar or wind, green hydrogen can be essential in the race to net zero. From Namibia to Canada, and Chile to the EU, policymakers are looking at hydrogen more than ever before.

Everyone is looking for better ways to generate energy. Better technologies and futures that are less polluting, less dependent on third countries and friendlier to the environment. In the long term, green hydrogen could reach global sales of up to 700,000 million euros annually by 2050 (Bloomberg). Green hydrogen as a profitable, high-tech industry and as a supplier of zero emission energy is possible and is on track, it is in full development of improving its productive concepts of its technologies and its long‑ term vision. Latin America is one of the world’s leading regions for renewable energy use today and one that can play a major role in the international push for low carbon hydrogen, a crucial element of a global net zero emissions future. Low carbon hydrogen industry is growing in Latin America, with many countries currently developing long term hydrogen strategies, including several gigawatt‑scale projects to export it beyond the region.

The World Bank has pointed to Latin America as having the potential to become one of the world’s most competitive regions in green hydrogen production by 2030. Although countries in the region are at different degrees of progress, there are already 13 operational projects in the region and more than 70 in development.

The region has great potential to play a major role in the future low carbon hydrogen landscape, and in Latin America’s own clean energy transitions. The next decade will be crucial for the long‑term promise of low carbon hydrogen in Latin America, and much can be done today to develop new technologies and prepare the ground for their future scaling up. In the region, 11 countries have either published or are currently preparing national hydrogen strategies and roadmaps, and a pipeline of more than 25 low carbon hydrogen projects are at the early stages of development. Chile has the ambition to produce and export the world’s most competitive hydrogen from renewable electricity by 2030, and many countries in Latin America share the conditions that could make the region a global leader in low carbon hydrogen