Symposium connected Chile and Australia through the development of green hydrogen

Strategies, potentialities and challenges were part of the topics addressed by representatives of the Oceanian country at the meeting, which closed with a discussion with participants from the public, private and academic sectors.

Constanza Saavedra OrtegaJournalist UCSC.- “The green hydrogen industry requires the joint work of countries, industries and academia. In the case of UCSC, initiatives such as the Energy Center will make it possible to test and pilot these technologies that will be key to cleaning up our economy,” said the Australian ambassador to Chile, Todd Mercer, during the symposium “Chile and Australia, the future of green hydrogen”, which was held in the Theater Room of the UCSC Extension Center.

The meeting, which included presentations by the director of Business Development and Investment of the energy sector of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, Embassy of Australia, Sofía Pereira; the director of the Energy and Hydrogen Research Program of the Australian Scientific Research Agency in Chile (CSIRO), Christian Larsen; and the director of Business Development Education Sector of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, Embassy of Australia, Scott Bennett, addressed issues such as potentialities and challenges related to the green hydrogen industry, whose national strategy in Australia emerged in 2019.

In the instance, the Rector of the UCSC, Dr. Cristhian Mellado, valued that “one of the central axes of this opportunity is to know the progress that Australia has made to promote green hydrogen. At UCSC we are promoting this energy as a scalable alternative for the industry and the requirements of the public and private sectors of the sector. With the Energy Center, the goal is to become a national benchmark in human capital formation, research and development. In addition, in our Strategic Development Plan we complement our capacities with care for the environment, so we have a strong commitment to contribute to sustainable development”.

The activity included the discussion “Collaboration to promote a local and global hydrogen industry”, moderated by the UCSC Director of Innovation, Dr. Emma Chávez, with the participation of the Director of the UCSC Energy Center, Dr. Ricardo Lizana; Energy Seremi of the Biobío Region, Daniela Espinoza; coordinator of the Hydrogen Unit, Institute of Technological Research (IIT), University of Concepción, Josefina Retamal; Innovation and Development Manager, CAP Acero, Siderúrgica Huachipato, Marco Carrasco; and CSIRO Hydrogen and Energy Research Program Director Christian Larsen.

One of the aspects highlighted by the director of Business Development and Investment in the energy sector of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, Sofía Pereira, was the relationship between Chile and Australia: “we are competing to advance towards the development of the industry, but more than only as competition, we also see it as an opportunity for collaboration, which is what we want to reinforce”.