Paraguay prepares new national hydrogen strategy

By Matías Medinilla

Paraguay is moving forward in elaborating market studies and a national green hydrogen strategy that will allow it to leverage new sustainable investments in the country.

Although the government has officially launched its H2V roadmap by the end of 2021, which foresees three pilot projects producing 60 to 200 kg of GH2 (green hydrogen) per day, the Vice-Ministry of Mines and Energy confirmed that the new document would cover more sectors of the local economy.

“The roadmap published at the end of 2021 was for transportation, but now a national strategy is intended to contemplate all sectors, such as industry, residential, and more.”

“That is to say that what has already been done will continue in the same way, but we are looking to land in the other segments of the country,” said Felipe Mitjans, director of Primary Energy Resources of the VMME.

“We hope to have it finished this year, and we already have some GH2 pilot projects that we are sending abroad to seek financing”, he added in an exclusive conversation with Energía Estratégica.

It should be recalled that there are already private companies that venture into the development of green hydrogen, specifically in 3 projects of 75 MW (Neorin), 120 MW (Atom), and 300 MW (Fortescue), either with a memorandum of understanding or contracts for the production of H2.

“In addition, there is already a hydrogen legislative initiative presented by deputies, but for our part, we are sending the draft H2 bill to the Executive Branch, which will then send it to the National Congress and will include the entire value chain up to export,” said the director of Primary Energy Resources of the Vice Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Similarly, the government is calculating the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH).

They already have certain terms of reference but are awaiting disbursements from multilateral banks to advance on this issue and have accurate data in the short term.

Although Mitjans preferred not to give preliminary estimates on the value of the LCOH, he remarked that “the numbers are competitive for the region since we are talking about hydroelectric sources”.

He also acknowledged that a “weakness” could be the access to the sea for its export.

The final amount would also imply the search for agreements with other countries for its sale abroad.

In other words, Paraguay will continue to bet on sustainability and the development and installation of more non-conventional renewable energies, given that last week it was announced that the current administration is also working on updating the Generation Master Plan.

Modernization with which wind energy and fuel cells will be included in the document prepared in 2021 and which has a horizon towards the year 2040 to meet the growth in demand of the National Interconnected System (SIN).

With information from Energía Estratégica