Chile arrived at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt with the intention of showing the progress made in decarbonisation of its energy matrixa series of energy policies through which it is proposed to become a carbon neutral country by 2050.

One of the central points of its energy policy is the high wind and solar capacity to produce electricity, which, according to the Chilean Energy Minister, Diego Pardow, places the country in a good position to be a large producer of green hydrogen, a alternative which, he anticipates, can “serve the rest of the world in the face of the energy transition”.

In an interview with Radio France International (RFI) in Egypt, Pardow also referred to the potential of lithium and copper in the transition, his plan to sell 100% electric cars. and its main goal of achieving carbon neutrality.

–Chile aspires to become one of the world’s leading exporters of green hydrogen due to its solar energy generation potential. But the production of this type of environmentally friendly fuel is still very expensive. And its transport will also be very expensive, due to its dangerousness. How can you make your production cheaper?

–In fact, the international demand for green hydrogen has not yet occurred. For this to happen, it is necessary for the industrialized countries to maintain their timetables for implementing the corrective tools that internalize the costs of fossil fuels. Use fossil fuels is like cheating: you release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and you don’t bear the cost.

Once we have these corrective tools in place to not freely release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, green hydrogen will be competitive in terms of surface costs with fossil fuels. It hasn’t actually happened yet.

But rather than talking about an export industry, which is part of our national strategy, it is interesting to think of the green hydrogen industry as a way to move from a fossil fuel-centric economy towards a more sustainable economy.

We see in green hydrogen as a way to replace the old oil working that Magallanes had and also replaced the coal generating operation in the north of the country to feed the mining industry.

–Chile aims to be carbon neutral by 2050: how will it achieve this ambitious goal? To do this, Chile will have to reduce its dependence on coal, a fossil energy that emits large quantities of CO2.

–There are two things. One is the commitment to carbon neutrality. Another is the Commitment to phase out coal-fired plants. In the case of coal-fired plants, what we need is to replace not only the number of megabytes generated but also the characteristics of these plants: in addition to providing electricity, they provide flexibility for peak demand.

We already have a large number of wind and photovoltaic plants. A third of our generating capacity comes from wind and sun, but wind varies throughout the year and the sun only exists during the day. I am unable to provide you with the flexibility we need. We have to approach it from a technological perspective.

–Global demand for lithium for electric car batteries is growing. Chile has large reserves that it will exploit. But this mining activity is in contradiction with President Boric’s desire to limit the excessive extractivism that depletes water reserves.

–There are several technologies to exploit lithium. Some consume a lot of water, others consume less. But both lithium and copper and green hydrogen will do it serve the rest of the planet to make its energy transition. We are willing to cooperate in this regard.

But from a strictly national perspective, we see in this sector a way to migrate to more complex and more sustainable industries than we currently have. There are economic communities that depend on coal, if you take them out of circulation you have to put something in their place to take over the jobs that pay the middle class. Green hydrogen is just that. The idea is to produce it with renewable energysolar or wind.

–Here at COP27 there is a sector of NGOs and states – three at the moment – ​​promoting a draft treaty for the non-proliferation of fossil fuels. Does Chile adhere to the idea?

–Chile today decided to join the “Beyond Gas and Oil” (BOGA) coalition to gradually reduce the number of explorations that will increase the production capacity of fossil fuels. Chile is not a producer of fossil fuels. We are net importers. Rather, our contribution is to show what comes after gas and oil.

What there is is an important technological challenge to replicate this production flexibility when you want oil to give and, in the case of transport, the electrification of cars plays a role, especially in cities. But for long-distance transportation, batteries aren’t the solution, then we have to find other things like synthetic fuelsgreen ammonia, are the kind of thing we’re exploring.

Source: RFI