Uruguay considers offshore wind-plus-hydro tenders

Uruguay is the South American champion in renewable energy.

The Republic is now looking at ways to produce green hydrogen from offshore wind farms off its coast in the South Atlantic and may launch the first tenders as early as two years from now.

Alejandro Stipanicic, president of the state-owned oil, cement, and beverage company “Ancap,” presented the “H2U Offshore” plan at a press conference earlier this week.

His company would issue a tender for interested companies to install a platform to produce green hydrogen just offshore through electrolysis from offshore wind power.

“We hope to do a consultation round with companies to understand their expectations so they can have access to our information and add to their baseline information,” Stipanicic said.

“That can take anywhere from eight months to two years. After that, it makes sense for us to conduct the tender,” he added.

Uruguay, traditionally relying on hydropower, has invested heavily in wind and solar energy over the past decade and now generates almost all of its electricity from renewable sources.

The H2U Offshore project will offer between eight and sixteen blocks off the coast of Uruguay, requiring an estimated investment of US$1 billion to US$3 billion.

The first block is located more than ten kilometers from the Uruguayan coast at a depth of between ten and thirty meters.

The second block is located more than one hundred kilometers from the Uruguayan coast and has a maximum depth of fifty meters.

The concession for the blocks would have a duration of 25 years and include the platform’s installation, the “hydrolyzer,” and a green ammonia plant.

According to an estimate by the World Bank, the South American country has a theoretical potential of 190 GW of ground-based offshore wind turbines and another 85 GW of floating wind turbines in its part of the South Atlantic, as well as wind speeds of over 9 m/s.

With information from Latina Press