HIF (Highly Innovative Fuels), a partnership between Enel Green Power Chile (EGP Chile), a subsidiary of Enel Chile, Chilean power company AME and state-owned company ENAP, together with international companies Siemens Energy and Porsche, reached another important milestone. The innovative pilot project to produce sustainable fuel will receive an 8 million euro grant from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy through Siemens Energy, as announced today by the Ministry itself. The Enel Group will contribute to the project by focusing on wind power and on the installation of an electrolyzer for the production of green hydrogen.
“Together with our partners, we are pioneering the development of green hydrogen in Chile,” said Salvatore Bernabei, Head of Enel Group’s Global Power Generation. “Leveraging on the availability of wind resources in Patagonia and in the Magallanes region in particular, we are building a state-of-the-art green hydrogen project that will help us acquire further insights into this technology.”
The electrolyzer fueled by wind energy and feeding the pilot project with green hydrogen will be located in Cabo Negro, north of Punta Arenas, Magallanes. The facility is expected to be commissioned in 2022, making it the largest plant of its kind to produce green hydrogen in Latin America.
Enel in Chile is the largest power company by installed capacity with over 7,200 MW of which over 4,700 MW from renewable energy, namely over 3,500 MW from hydro, more than 600 MW from wind, about 500 MW from solar and approx. 40 MW from geothermal. The Enel Group also operates in the distribution sector through Enel Distribución Chile, which serves around 2 million end users, as well as in the advanced energy solutions business through Enel X Chile.