Korea, Chile see potential for cooperation in hydrogen

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Sat, September 23, 2023 | 13:51

Foreign Affairs

Korea, Chile see potential for cooperation in hydrogen

Posted : 2023-04-28 09:00

Updated : 2023-04-30 17:16

Chile's Minister of Energy Diego Pardow Lorenzo, second from right, and Korea's Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun, second from left, pose during the Korea-Chile Hydrogen Energy Strategic Partnership Seminar at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, April 24. Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, industry and Energy

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Korea and Chile vowed to strengthen cooperation in producing and utilizing green hydrogen to achieve carbon neutrality. Prospects of such a partnership were discussed during Chilean Minister of Energy Diego Pardow Lorenzo's visit to Seoul.

Pardow showcased Chile's commitment to energy transition and the Latin American country's strength in renewable energy, highlighting its goal of becoming a worldwide supplier of clean fuel based on hydrogen. The Chilean minister discussed details of this plan with his Korean counterpart and major Korean companies.

Due to its geography and climate, Chile has abundant resources of clean energy, including solar, wind, hydro and geothermal power and now aims to produce and supply green hydrogen at the lowest cost in the world by 2030 according to its national strategy announced in November 2020.

"Now we are able to provide more than half of our demand of electricity by renewable resources, but we still have more than 80 percent in potential capacity in generation," Pardow said.

Chile has a strong regulatory framework and incentives for the development of these projects, including storage facilities and flexible technologies that contribute to the stability of the energy grid.

"We are working on two sets of legislation pieces, one directed to promote renewable energies and creating mandatory quarters and the other one directed to improve transmission or distribution systems to simplify the process of planning both distribution and transmission. We also have a decarbonization plan that wants to bring together the different scientific approaches in Chile all together under a single framework," the minister explained.

To meet the decarbonization goal, Pardow emphasized that the three sectors ― electricity, industry and transportation ― need to be decarbonized simultaneously.

"We have moved much faster on the decarbonization of the electricity sector. The decommissioning we have made of coal power plants so far has just been compensated by the increase in automobile sales, especially after the pandemic. So even if we were able to close coal power plants, we haven't been able to reduce global emissions because of the increase in the transport sector emission. So we have to move forward in all these three sectors at the same time," he said.

The Chilean minister noted that Korea can be a great partner in the hydrogen industry and explore opportunities in utilizing the clean gas with over 40 projects under development throughout the Latin American country.

"Haru Oni, producing e-fuel, is working already. A couple of weeks ago we had the first shipments to Europe... (Gas Valpo) involves blending of hydrogen and natural gas into the pipelines of residential consumers used for heating," he explained.

"All the projects are either in development or in the stage previous to final investment decision. They tend to concentrate either in the northern hub or the southern hub, the generation hubs, and in the center are dedicated to our industrial clusters, directed to meet internal demand for hydrogen," Pardow said, sending an "invitation to build together this pathway to the energy transition" to Korea.

Korea's Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun noted that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Korea and Chile and the bilateral ties are expanding in various sectors including trade, investment, energy and minerals.

"In particular, Chile, with its strength in green hydrogen production, and Korea, which is leading the way in hydrogen utilization such as hydrogen vehicles, will strengthen cooperation in the hydrogen sector," Ahn said.

Ahn briefed Pardow on Korea's three strategies to promote its hydrogen supply chain and industry.

"First is the scale-up, from hydrogen passenger cars to larger buses and trucks and from smaller fuel cells to larger generators. There will be expansion on the scale not only in Korea, but globally in the hydrogen supply chain. Second, the world's largest liquid hydrogen plant will be established on top of institutional features such as clean hydrogen certification system and hydrogen power generation bidding market. Third, electrolysis technology, fuel cell and other core areas are designated to industrial growth," Ahn said.

"Korea and Chile are the world's first countries in preparation for a hydrogen economy. Chile was the first Latin American country to announce a hydrogen strategy, while Korea was the first country in the world to legislate the Hydrogen Act, which means both countries have been taking the initiative in policies and systems," he added.

meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr