Green Hydrogen Summit 2025

The event brought together more than thousand people in two event days

Concepción, Chile, 23 April 2025. The city of Concepción hosted the sixth version of the Green Hydrogen Summit Chile LAC 2025, event where more than a thousand people participated in two days. The summit addressed topics related to the entire renewable hydrogen value chain, bringing together national and regional authorities around the challenges to implement this new industry in the country and the region.

The inauguration of the event was graced by the presence of several distinguished guests, including Diego Pardow, Minister of Energy; José Miguel Benavente, Executive Vice President of Corfo; Sergio Giacaman, Governor of the Biobío Region; Eduardo Pacheco, Presidential Delegate of Biobío; Susanne Fries-Gaier, German Ambassador to Chile; Francisco García, Head of Cooperation of the European Union (EU) Delegation in Chile; and George Cristodorescu, Coordinator of the Energy Cluster, GIZ ConoSur.

This event - which was held for the first time in the Biobío Region and outside of Santiago - was organised by Corfo, the Ministry of Energy, the Delegation of the European Union in Chile, the German agency GIZ, the Biobío Green Hydrogen Regional Strategic Programme (H2V Biobío) and the Biobío Corfo Committee, with the support of various national and international entities. It was also attended by representatives from Germany, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Japan and the United States, among others.

The Energy Minister, Diego Pardow, highlighted the beginning of the Green Hydrogen Action Plan, emphasising its bottom-up approach and extensive participation. “When you move from the PowerPoint to tangible projects that materialise in a specific place, you embody that journey from the centre to the region. The national strategy was precisely designed to provide continuity to a state plan and policy, whilst also migrating from the general to the particular and from the centre to the region.”

In response, Governor Giacaman emphasised that “the seminar represented not merely a valuable seminar, but rather, an assurance that Biobío will be capable of meeting the domestic demand for green hydrogen, and that the region is well-positioned to export. This is a very good region to develop enterprises, it is a good region to live in and a good region to build a life.

José Miguel Benavente has asserted that “Chile has comparative advantages for green energy production and in particular for green hydrogen, which is an undeniable fact. However, what we need is to turn these advantages into competitive advantages. And that depends on us and on the efforts of all of us sitting here, the public sector, the private sector, the university, entrepreneurs, companies and foreign investment to move on.”

“Chile, like Germany, remains committed to free trade and a comprehensive regulatory framework that provides stability and confidence for investment. In this sense, the recent Association Agreement between the European Union and Chile, which came into effect in February this year, opens up a range of new opportunities to strengthen cooperation and knowledge exchange in key areas such as the energy transition,” said the German Ambassador to Chile, Susanne Fries-Gaier.

“The European Union is committed to creating an enabling environment for the renewable hydrogen market in Chile. To this end, it has committed up to 220.5 million euros for its development in the country,” according to EU Ambassador to Chile Claudia Gintersdorfer. “We are working closely with the Government, public bodies and the private sector through a 'Team Europe' initiative, which brings together European institutions, EU Member States, the European Investment Bank and our implementing partners: KfW, GIZ and AECID. By working together, we are contributing to the decarbonisation of the Chilean economy while creating green jobs and business opportunities for Chilean and European companies.”

Finally, George Cristodorescu, Director of the GIZ Cono Sur Energy Cluster, said that “it is an honour to participate in this first version outside Santiago, here in the city of Concepción. This is a strong sign of the decentralisation process and the growing participation of the regions in the energy transition”.

Industrial rings for Biobío

As part of the opening of the event, the Executive Vice President of Corfo announced the call for competition for “Industrial Rings for the promotion of demand for H2V and its derivatives, and productive linkage in the Biobío Region”. This initiative is part of the Biobío Industrial Strengthening Plan and seeks to consolidate the experience of the public sector and the private world around the development of renewable energy and industrial activity. The purpose of this call is to provide financing for up to 60% of the total cost of the selected projects, with a maximum amount available for any individual project of US$5 million, and projects must be completed within a maximum period of six years.

Benavente stated: “The call for competition, which is to be awarded in November this year, aims to accelerate the demand for green hydrogen and its derivatives, boost regional production chains, facilitate the creation of industrial alliances and trade agreements between companies in the Biobío Region, national and international ones, and promote productive development, technology transfer and innovation in the green hydrogen industry and its derivatives.”

Parallel topics generate great interest

On the second day of the Summit, several side events were held, including 'Building the industrial future of Biobío'. This event brought together public and private sector actors to discuss the regional energy transition and investment opportunities. In addition, the Hintco H2Global Tender was initiated in parallel, which presented a second international tender focused on the acquisition of green hydrogen and derivatives. This initiative gained significant interest from both domestic and international companies, due to its potential to stimulate exports from Chile to Europe.

Another pertinent topic was addressed in the event on the inclusion of women in the green hydrogen industry, where best practices from the private sector were shared and strategies for advancing gender equality in the energy ecosystem were discussed. Furthermore, other meetings were held to discuss the following topics: modular solutions for industrial applications, the incorporation of SMEs in the value chain, and the progress of regional programmes such as Transforma Biobío and Transforma Hidrógeno Verde Magallanes.