UTE and HIF Global Seal Power Price Deal for Paysandú Plant

Uruguay's state-owned utility, UTE, has finally reached an agreement with Chile's HIF Global on the electricity tariff for an innovative plant in the Paysandú region. This marks a crucial breakthrough—after some serious back-and-forth, they've tackled the biggest hurdle that had been holding up the project's final investment decision, making large-scale hydrogen production from renewable sources a real possibility.

This plant is poised to be one of the largest private investments in Uruguay's history, featuring a massive gigawatt-scale electrolysis facility powered by dedicated wind and solar parks that together boast 2 GW of generation capacity. The goal? To blend green hydrogen with captured carbon dioxide from the state’s biofuels subsidiary, ALUR, and whip up hundreds of millions of liters of carbon-neutral e-fuels, like synthetic methanol and e-gasoline, aimed at international markets. Now, securing that competitive electricity rate is key—not just for the project’s success but also because electricity costs make up about 70% of its total operating expenses, which will directly impact the price of these e-fuels as they try to meet soaring global demand.

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