Chile’s government is offering $30 million to support development of green hydrogen projects larger than 10MW before the end of 2025.

The call through the national development corporation Corfo forms part of Chile’s ambition to become a leader globally in the production and export of green hydrogen, which has been gathering momentum since its launch in November last year.

The call is open to national and international companies and will support one or more projects to become operational before the end of 2025.

Applications are due in September with Corfo available for enquiries and clarification until July.

“Our strategy contemplates the development of the fuel in different stages. First we seek to produce for and clean our local industries and once the industry is consolidated and sufficiently scaled, we will be able to export hydrogen,” says Minister of Energy and Mining, Juan Carlos Jobet.

“When we launched the strategy in November, we had 20 projects to develop green hydrogen and we have already more than doubled that number to more than 40 projects to produce or consume green hydrogen in Chile.”

Corfo, in preparation for the current call, issued a Request for Information process in December 2020 and reports having received 18 expressions of interest in initiatives requiring investment in excess of $12 billion.

These ranged from transportation and the substitution of fossil fuels for heat production in industry to green ammonia, methanol and synthetic fuels for export, among others.

Chile is likely to see two green hydrogen production hotspots to emerge. The Antofagasta region in the north is seeing the implementation of solar projects. The Magallanes region in the south with its excellent wind resources is estimated to have the potential to output more than 10% of the world’s green hydrogen production.