This is an automated translation of the original release published in Spanish.
PRESS RELEASE from GIZ Chile
June 4, 2026
At the University of Chile, the seminar “From Innovation to Market: Green Hydrogen for Industrial Transformation in Chile” was held, bringing together authorities, academics, companies, and students to learn about the progress of different green hydrogen projects.
The event was organized by the International Hydrogen Promotion Program (H2Uppp) of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE), which is implemented by the German agency GIZ, with the support of AHK Chile.
In his welcome remarks, Javier Ortiz de Zúñiga, director of GIZ’s Energy Cluster, commented that “the challenge is no longer to demonstrate the potential of green hydrogen, but to accelerate its adoption through concrete business cases and viable industrial applications. In addition, Germany and Europe see Chile as a strategic partner to advance industrial decarbonization, as is the project promoted by Wilo under the H2Uppp Program implemented by GIZ”.
Then, Marcos Kulka, executive director of H2 Chile, stated that “Chile has built a solid foundation and both local demand and the target markets for our hydrogen are already taking shape, so those who come with mature applications and competitive costs will capture those contracts. That is why what is being presented today—modular solutions with concrete use cases—is exactly the kind of work we need to showcase”.
Meanwhile, Cristian Lagos, head of the Fuels and New Energies Division at the Ministry of Energy, indicated that the targets have been updated to be more realistic, given the progress of the global market. “The world keeps moving forward and if we do not do the same, other countries will take away our advantage; that is why the government will continue to promote investments in green hydrogen that are in line with the current development of the industry.”
Study presentation
Marco Vaccarezza, head of New Technologies at Fraunhofer Chile Research, shared the main results of an analysis of the green hydrogen and energy storage market, carried out within the framework of the PPP project “H2 Power Plants for LATAM”, driven by Wilo and GIZ as part of the H2Uppp Program. This work identified the productive sectors in Chile and Brazil with the greatest potential for the implementation of modular green hydrogen production plants.
Among the findings, it was identified that in Chile the most attractive opportunities are concentrated where modular hydrogen can solve specific operational challenges in distributed or semi-distributed assets. The key sectors are: logistics and distribution centers; medium- and long-distance freight transport; feeding pontoons in aquaculture; and data centers.
The event also featured presentations by Ana María Ruz from the Green Hydrogen Committee of Corfo, Giannina de Nicola from Wilo, Eduardo Peralta from Copec, Oswald Eppers from K-UTEC and Erwin Sepúlveda from the Energy Center of the Universidad de Chile, who later joined a panel that was moderated by Grace Keller from H2 News.
