Colbún has opened Chile’s first industrial green hydrogen plant at its Nehuenco power station in Quillota, built with an investment of USD 1.6 million to replace fossil-fuel-based hydrogen with solar-powered green hydrogen.
October 28, 2025. By Mrinmoy Dey
Colbún, a Chilean power generation and energy solutions company, has announced that it has inaugurated the first industrial green hydrogen (H2V) plant at a power plant in Chile in Nehuenco.
Located in Quillota, the Nehuenco thermoelectric complex can supply the energy consumption of more than 570,000 homes. As a routine part of the cooling process for their generators, thermoelectric plants use hydrogen. In the case of Nehuenco, grey hydrogen was used until now, which generates polluting emissions because it is produced with fossil fuels.
With this new H2V plant, which operates off-grid, the cooling process will be carried out with green hydrogen, generated from photovoltaic energy. With an investment of USD 1.6 million, this new facility in Nehuenco includes a solar farm with an installed capacity of 100 kW, batteries, an electrolyser, and storage tanks, the company said in a statement.
This project marks a new step in Colbún’s strategy to modernise and adapt the Nehuenco Complex—a facility that has been operating since the early 2000s—to provide the security and flexibility required by the electrical system to complement the intermittency of solar and wind renewable energy, ensure security of supply, and advance a responsible energy transition, it said.
Among the improvements made are the investment in a Reverse Osmosis Plant to reduce water consumption during periods of water shortage; a major maintenance program implemented at the complex to improve its efficiency and operational flexibility; and the recent approval of an Environmental Impact Statement, which will require an investment of nearly USD 18 million to make its generating units more flexible, in addition to increasing installed capacity and achieving more efficient water use.
José Ignacio Escobar, CEO of Colbún , stated, “We are convinced that this type of technological development will continue to advance in the country. However, the true driving force behind the progress of new technologies lies in diversification, where the advantages of each complement each other. Sustainability must be environmental, social, and economic, and also generate value and opportunities for all.”
In 2024, Colbún had implemented the installation of the first green hydrogen plant at a power plant in Peru, allowing 100 percent of the grey hydrogen used at the Fenix thermoelectric facility to be replaced with green hydrogen.
