Mexico has 22TW of green hydrogen potential: Study

Mexico has the potential to install 22TW of green hydrogen infrastructure, with public transport, power generation and the petrochemical industry key areas for development, according to a study financed by the German foreign development agency, GiZ.

The potential to develop green hydrogen, which is hydrogen produced using renewable energy sources, is particularly large in northwest Mexico where solar power resources are strongest, William Jensen, consultant for the Mexico-Germany Energy Alliance said today.

The study, commissioned by the Mexico-Germany Energy Alliance and designed to provide a blueprint for green hydrogen development across Mexico, identifies public transport, long-distance cargo vehicles, heavy industry, Pemex's refining and petrochemical businesses and power generation and electricity storage as key areas of opportunity.

Green hydrogen use in Pemex's downstream business — including refining and ammonia production — could be worth $1.3bn/yr by 2030, while 1.5GW of electricity generation capacity could be powered by green hydrogen by 2050, according to the study.

By 2050, Mexico's green hydrogen-powered public transport system could represent 1,750 t/yr of demand, serving 250,000 busses and 250,000 cargo trucks and employing 90,000 people.

Mexico committed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 22pc by 2030 against a 2005 base line during the previous government of Enrique Pena Nieto, rising to 50pc by 2050, under the UN Paris climate agreement. But President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government has largely neglected programs to reduce emissions, with gas flaring more than doubling since 2018, renewable energy development curtailed and coal and fuel oil powered electricity favored.

Amid the lack of federal programs, state governments are taking the lead with more aggressive renewable energy and emissions programs, including Puebla state that has identified the potential to produce 9,850 t/yr of green hydrogen.

Puebla's government has bet on renewable energy and gas projects as a means to generate jobs and investment in the state and hopes to attract the country's first hydrogen investments to support industrialization and public transport.

By Rebecca Conan