Date: July 18
The National Administration of Fuels, Alcohol and Portland (ANCAP) of Uruguay is perfecting its business model for the installation of offshore wind farms and the production of green hydrogen and its derivatives. The objective is to take advantage of ANCAP’s experience in offshore energy exploration to tender ten marine blocks of 500 km2 each, with an average potential of 2 to 3 GW of renewable capacity and winds ranging between 8.5 and 9 m/s, with capacity factors greater than 55%.
According to Alejandro Stipanicic, president of ANCAP, the call for the areas for the evaluation of offshore wind projects will take place at the end of this year. Stipanicic said that they are working offshore based on models similar to those already known to oil companies in the world, since they are the ones driving large investments in renewable energy. These companies have the capacity, technology and aversion to minimal risks to face this type of undertaking.
Offshore operations are complex, but they already exist and can be adapted for the production of renewable energy. Just as you might have an oil rig to produce offshore oil and gas, there might be a rig that has an electrolyser or electrical substations to collect power from a grid of wind turbines.
ANCAP held the first Road Show of the H2U Round in the city of Copenhagen, where it presented the characteristics of this call and identified the opportunities that lie ahead. More than 50 entities have already shown interest in hydrogen and renewables in Uruguay. Stipanicic pointed out that it is important that there are countries like Uruguay that can be suppliers of cleaner energy that replace the consumption of coal to generate electricity in China or Europe.
The contract model foresees sub-periods of 2 to 4 years linked to the evaluation of the projects, such as studies with existing reports, acquisition and processing of new data and the pilot production of H2 or the detail of the information collected; up to a period of approximately 30 years for the development and production of H2.
In order to concretize this whole process and make the most of the experience of the oil and gas sector brought to renewables, ANCAP is working with the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining and the Ministry of the Environment to make a regulation that contemplates and complements some actions with others.
Source: Energía Estratégica
