During the FES Argentina mega event, the important energy consulting firm DREICON highlighted the need for a key law to encourage and promote the production and export of the energy vector.
There is no doubt about the potential that Argentina has to become a major producer and exporter of green hydrogen due to its abundant renewable resources, technological capacity and growing international market.
These attributes were reflected in the mega-event Future Energy Summit (FES), held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where authorities of the energy portfolio, representatives of associations, financial entities, developers, specialists and leading international manufacturers, debated the opportunities for investment in the country.
Taking into account the attractiveness of the country, Gerardo Manhard, COO & Director of DREICON, a company dedicated to consulting and engineering services in energy and infrastructure matters, spoke of the need to advance the bill by which it is planned to update the old Law No. 26123 (promulgated in 2006) and establish a low-emission hydrogen economy regime in Argentina.
“We still have to make concrete progress in green hydrogen. We had a bill where there were issues to review, above all, the national component and the connection to the network. We need a national component to be able to install the wind turbines that are one of the bases of the green hydrogen projects,” he stated.
And he added: “Although the Secretary of Energy (Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo) spoke at this event about hydrogen, it is still not clear if and how that law will be revisited. We believe that it must be synchronized with buyers in Europe and with neighboring countries that will be potential sellers. You will also have to consider that it will be difficult to compete with US subsidies.”
In this sense, Manhard assured that there is a lot of interest in investing in Argentina but that they are more long-term investments because it is necessary to know the rules of the game through a law that regulates and encourages the activity.
In fact, he revealed that they have been developing a green hydrogen project for some time near a port in Patagonia where they have an important offtaker interested in green ammonia for export.
“There are many industry partners who are hiring us for energy efficiency projects. We have relationships and negotiations for wind farms and electrolyzers. We just need to have the regulatory context defined in Argentina so that these projects can move forward,” he insisted.
On the other hand, another of the barriers raised by the specialist is the imminent need to invest in transmission networks in order to give the green light to projects that help diversify the country’s matrix.
Strong presence in the country
Despite the challenges posed, the resources in Argentina make Dreincon participate in numerous energy transition projects. According to Manhard, they envision the possibility of installing a large amount of power at the distributed energy level.
These are projects that are not very large, but are often attractive to developers with private demands.
They are also working on advising on projects closely linked to biomethane, such as the installation of an upgrading plant to inject this renewable gas into the grid. In turn, he highlighted that many companies hire them to migrate their gas consumption towards renewable sources through direct electrification.
At the same time, he revealed that they were contracted for 3 wind projects under development that total 190 MW and are already underway.
After commenting on the portfolio of projects they are advising, the executive concluded: “We are a medium-sized company and the direction we are heading is outlined by our clients motivated to decarbonize their production processes. We hope to continue growing in Argentina towards the energy transition.”
