During the visit of the Mayor of Hamburg, Dr. Tschentscher, to Chile, a Memorandum of Understanding on hydrogen cooperation was signed with the Chilean Ministry of Energy. The Energy Partnership Chile-Germany has helped to promote this from the very beginning. There has been a close relationship between Hamburg and Chile for more than 100 years.

24 August 2022 was one of the highlights of the week-long trip of the delegation of the first mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Dr. Peter Tschentscher, to Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. On this day, a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Energy on green hydrogen was signed in Santiago de Chile together with the CEO of the Hamburg Port Authority, Friedrich Stuhrmann. The joint declaration marks a further step in Chile's implementation of the Green-Shipping-Corridor Commitment signed at the COP26 in Glasgow.

"From Hamburg, we are looking for partners to complement our hydrogen strategy. The agreement means a commitment from Chile to Hamburg, Germany's largest seaport; and also from Hamburg to Chile, namely that we will move forward on specific projects needed for hydrogen technology," Dr Tschentscher underlines. He adds, "In Hamburg there are many companies involved and investing in hydrogen technology.”  The Port of Hamburg has a large processing industry and, according to its hydrogen strategy, wants to become a European hub for green hydrogen. The open access model of the Hamburg harbour could serve as an example for Chile on how to involve local public actors.

Chilean Energy Minister Claudio Huepe stresses: "Our objective is to jointly create the conditions for the early export of hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives to Hamburg and Central Europe, and to promote the rapid development of a self-sufficient hydrogen market in both countries.” Chile has a huge potential for electricity generation from renewable energies, especially solar and wind, with high efficiency levels. The country has been pursuing an ambitious energy transition policy for years, part of which is the phase-out of coal by the next decade. The National Strategy for Green Hydrogen was already announced in 2020 and is an important contribution on the road to carbon neutrality by 2050.”

With this cooperation agreement, Chile strengthens its excellent trade relations with Germany and shows its openness to technology transfer. Specifically, the cooperation is supposed to concern the development of new port infrastructure, but also the re-use of existing infrastructure, the implementation of standards and regulations for storage, handling and loading of hydrogen and its derivatives, inland pipelines and the future development of ship technologies for green hydrogen shipping. The agreement involves private and public stakeholders.

In the afternoon of the same day, the delegation's programme included a round table discussion with representatives of Chilean and German companies from the renewable energy and hydrogen sectors. Daina Neddemeyer, head of the Energy Partnership Chile-Alemania, presented the challenges of the energy sector in Chile and many results of the work of the GIZ Energy Cluster.

The Energy Partnership Chile-Alemania, which is implemented by GIZ in Chile on behalf of BMWK, is part of GIZ´s “4e Energy Programme”, which has been promoting the development of green hydrogen and its derivatives in Chile since 2014.