Latin American universities show interest in green hydrogen project

"The National University of Río Negro invited us to present the Río Negro experience with the green hydrogen project to teams of Latin American universities working on the subject and other renewable energy initiatives," explained Sanguinetti.

Sanguinetti reviewed the advances in green hydrogen, the strategic plan, the studies carried out, legal aspects and explained that "they were interested in all the work carried out by the Government of Río Negro, an experience that is very attractive for them and they want to share it in the universities of the continent".

"This kind of invitation is quite frequent and it really shows the importance of the work being done by the Province", he said. He also mentioned that last Tuesday he made a presentation on the project in the National Chamber of Deputies: "We are about to enter the Law that will give a framework to all hydrogen projects in the country".

The interuniversity meeting also included the Leaders Summit of the project co-financed by the European Union Eramus+ I2LATAM, on strengthening research and innovation in young universities for regional development in Latin America.

In this regard, Sanguinetti pointed out that "since the 2015 Paris agreement, all world climate summits have focused on issues related to lowering CO2 emissions and quickly starting an energy transition, especially in the face of extreme weather events that occur more and more often and indicate that we must move forward quickly with concrete actions that can be implemented".

As regards the progress, he explained that the company in charge of the investment in green hydrogen in Rio Negro has been working for about a year on pre-feasibility studies in the province, which implies that there are many engineers working in the area of Sierra Grande and the areas where the facilities will be located. "We are doing well, but the legal framework is pending for all this to begin to show more concrete progress," he said.

The National University of Río Negro is part of the project and was the host institution for this event, which also received a delegation from the Government of Uruguay, from the Ente Binacional de la Represa Salto Grande.

"They were also interested in the hydrogen agenda of Rio Negro and we hope that these visits can be reinforced in future agreements," he concluded.