Brazil’s National Institute of Clean Energies (INEL) has announced the establishment of a green hydrogen secretariat (SHV) to accelerate the growth of green hydrogen production in Brazil. The secretariat will serve under the leadership of Luiz Piauhylino Filho, who has experience in the renewable energy and green hydrogen sectors, in both Portugal and Brazil.

Filho said that the SHV will try to guarantee low-cost clean energy for the production of green hydrogen. It will coordinate with the main players in the market, as well as national and international authorities, other clean energy associations, companies, entrepreneurs, and the general public.

In November 2021, INEL set up a working group with the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL) to seek technical solutions for the connection of distributed generation – one of the bottlenecks for the segment in the country. The results of this analysis were delivered in May.

The green hydrogen segment in Brazil has started to grow this year with the installation of the country’s first industrial-scale green hydrogen production plant. It was completed in May by Unigel. The system includes three standard 20 MW electrolyzers supplied by Thyssenkrupp nucera, with a second phase expected to expand the project’s capacity beyond 100 MW.

Shell's Brazilian subsidiary is also working on hydrogen projects, in collaboration with the port of Açu. The two sides are developing a pilot plant at the port, north of Rio de Janeiro, with an initial capacity of 10 MW. They aim to eventually develop a 100 MW green hydrogen production facility at the port.