Chile thermoelectric generator aiming to use green ammonia from 2030

Chilean power firm Guacolda Energía hopes to start using green ammonia at its 760MW coal-fired generation complex in Atacama region from 2030, BNamericas was told. 

The company is working on burner replacement feasibility studies with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. An associated MOU was signed in 2022.

Guacolda’s initial goal is to substitute 30% of coal consumed at the five-unit asset before ramping up that proportion to 50% from 2033, Guacolda development manager Aníbal Ramos said. 

Core components at the plant were supplied by Mitsubishi, which is developing ammonia co-firing technology. Green ammonia, a versatile energy carrier and industry feedstock, is made by combining green hydrogen and nitrogen.

Guacolda officials, meanwhile, are considering a third-party production alliance that could also target the export market, leveraging its existing infrastructure, chiefly a dock for coal vessels.

Japan is expected to become a large consumer of imported green ammonia for its own fleet of thermoelectric plants.

In 2021, generator AES Andes sold its stake in the complex, giving Guacolda full ownership of the asset.

AES Andes, Engie Energía and Enel have either announced, or are still considering, what to do with coal-fired power stations taken out of service as part of the sector’s decarbonization push. 

Conversion initiatives announced by them publicly so far encompass – along with green ammonia – molten salt energy storage, biomass and LNG. The firms, along with Colbún, have committed to fully exit coal by 2040, a goal that could be achieved earlier, with much hinging on implementing solutions to provide the stability and balancing role that these plants play. 

In terms of Chile's green hydrogen push, Ramos underscored the importance of developing projects “responsibly” while waiting for the regulatory wheels to turn.

“We enter now, or we remain outside,” Ramos told the first LatAm Meeting on Green Ammonia and Power-to-X, hosted in capital Santiago by Chilean green ammonia research body MIGA, where delegates heard that the country was well positioned to become a key green ammonia exporter and leverage it locally.

Among pioneering local offtake projects is one that involves producing fertilizer in Araucanía region using ashes from biomass combustion, along with green hydrogen and green ammonia. Proposed by biomass power generation firm Comasa, the initial goal is to produce 1,500t/y of ammonia from 2027. 

If the pilot is successful, production could be ramped up to 35,000t/y and beyond, the event was told. State development agency Corfo recently granted Comasa a 3.25bn-peso (US$3.6mn) subsidy for the project.

Chile imports and burns almost all the hydrocarbons it consumes, resulting in hefty annual bills and exposure to price volatility, but creating opportunities for eventual substitution with the likes of green hydrogen and its derivatives.  

Overall in Chile, green hydrogen challenges rest in the spheres of permitting, territorial planning, demand-side incentives, skills training, offtake, midstream infrastructure, early-stage financing and regulation. 

Abundant renewable energy resources, a stable operating environment, a state push to develop a green hydrogen economy and local and global net-zero drives are among the tailwinds. 

Chile has various pilot projects operating, chief among them the Haru Oni e-fuels plant in Magallanes region. Several projects have entered the environmental review system and more may follow suit this year.