O three-year work plan (2023-2025) of PNH2 (National Hydrogen Program), launched on the 15th of this month by the MME (Ministry of Mines and Energy), is an important step towards the development of a competitive low-carbon hydrogen market in Brazil.
The analysis is from ABSOLAR (Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association). According to the entity, the initiative also helps to create conditions for consolidate the country as a global protagonist in the geopolitics of energy transition with the H2V (green hydrogen), which is produced from renewable sources such as solar and wind.
Furthermore, the plan includes crucial aspects for the development of the Brazilian market, including technological base, infrastructure and workforce training.
Above all, they stated that it provides guidelines for energy planning, creation of a legal-regulatory framework, opening and growth of the domestic and export markets and conditions for international cooperation. The plan presented also provides for annual review to adapt to the maturity of the technology and the sector.
According to the assessment of the association, which collaborated in the preparation of the plan and had several action proposals accepted by the MME, the global H2 market will grow strongly in the coming years, going from a US$110 billion sector in 2019 to more than US$ 200 billion in a few years, and migrate from production mainly from fossil sources to H2V.
“Several countries are moving towards this energy vector, as a solution for decarbonizing economies and production processes,” commented Camila Ramos, Vice President of Investment and Green Hydrogen at ABSOLAR.
“Therefore, it is important for Brazil to position itself as one of the main producers, in a solid and rapid way, given the country’s vocation for the production of competitive and scaled renewable energy, in addition to its great potential for domestic demand”, he emphasized.
The executive also highlighted the need to prioritize renewable sources for hydrogen production, since the entire rationale for the growth of this sector is decarbonization. “Another important point of the plan is the mapping and study of the competitiveness of the low-carbon hydrogen value chain, including as a way of identifying opportunities and bottlenecks for Brazil and identifying public policies for incentives.”
Eduardo Tobias, coordinator of the Green Hydrogen task force at ABSOLAR, believes that the project could be more ambitious in its three-year planning, especially in achieving the objectives of decarbonizing the Brazilian economy and contributing to the global energy transition.
“The text presented has an agnostic approach in relation to hydrogen production routes, including an agnostic approach to H2V and gray hydrogen (from natural gas without carbon capture). This fact worries the association as it can encourage and allocate resources to production routes that do not contribute to the decarbonization of the economy”, he pointed out.
According to ABSOLAR, the plan does not foresee the establishment of production and consumption targets for H2V in the next three years. It also does not consider objective and concrete measures to promote the consumption of fuel from renewable sources in the coming years, replacing the current domestic consumption of hydrogen and derivatives (e.g. ammonia and methanol), produced from fossil fuels and, to a large extent, imported.
“In this sense, the ABSOLAR will mobilize its more than 120 associates currently engaged in the H2V Task Force to evaluate, in detail, the proposal for the Three-Year Plan and contribute, within the scope of Public Consultation No. 147 of the MME, with proposals for improvements and complementing the actions presented”, concluded Tobias.
