Energy Advisor

Cecilia Aguillón, director of the Energy Transition Initiative at the Institute of the Americas: “Recently, former Costa Rican President and current candidate José María Figueres tweeted his support for a national green hydrogen strategy. His tweet made clear that green hydrogen could be a decisive factor in support of Costa Rica’s plan to decarbonize its economy by 2050. Clearly, high volume production of green hydrogen used for export and domestic consumption could create economies of scale to help decarbonize the country’s heavy duty transport sector. It would also foster trade, which would be difficult if Costa Rica only produced green hydrogen for its domestic market. Green hydrogen production could also benefit the country’s economy through job creation and revenues for incentives to lower emissions in other sectors, such as agriculture and personal transportation—the latter by facilitating increased deployment of electric vehicles. In many ways, Costa Rica offers green hydrogen producers an ideal place to invest, given its relatively low-cost electricity, skilled work force and political stability. Government support of green hydrogen production is useful, but success hinges on…”