The general director of Iberdrola Mexico, Enrique Alba, assured that green hydrogen is already a competitive business for companies and defended that it represents a “great opportunity” to decarbonize Latin America.
“The region has to join because green hydrogen will be a great opportunity for Latin America both in terms of price and to give the region competitiveness,” said the businessman during his speech at the Latin America Energy Week 2021 forum, organized by Siemens Energy.
Green hydrogen is produced from water with the electrolysis process, which can be carried out using electricity obtained from renewable sources without emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, unlike gray hydrogen, obtained through natural gas.
Enrique Alba assured that the technology necessary to produce green hydrogen is already “a reality” and that replacing gray hydrogen “is already competitive” for companies and countries.
Likewise, the director of Iberdrola Mexico stressed that green hydrogen “is a great opportunity for all of Latin America because it is one of the regions that can generate the most renewable energy.”
He explained that Latin American countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Colombia or Venezuela “still use a lot of freight transport by roads” by means of large trucks that could use green hydrogen.
Alba defended that the renewable energy industry is not only the way to achieve the goal of decarbonizing the planet in 2050, but that “they contribute competitiveness to industries, companies and countries.”
“We have to be clear about it. Leave behind the prejudices that renewables are expensive and not competitive,” said Alba, who explained that in recent years there has been “a very substantial reduction in prices.”
Projects aimed at developing green hydrogen as a clean source of energy will total an investment of $ 300 billion by 2030 worldwide, according to a report by the Hydrogen Council initiative.
The report, which studies the investment, deployment and cost competitiveness of green hydrogen, points out that 45% of the planned investment is concentrated in Europe, followed by Asia, where China accounts for more than half the volume.
In Latin America, the Government of Chile has proposed to become one of the world leaders in the production and export of green hydrogen as a clean fuel by 2050.
