Latin America & the Caribbean Hydrogen Market Report - 2026

Latin America & the Caribbean Hydrogen Market Report - 2026

Summary

Due to its abundant renewable resources, LAC holds strong green hydrogen potential, but deployment remains early-stage, with half of the region's potential 2030 capacity still in the feasibility stage.

Chile and Brazil account for more than 80% of announced regional capacity, leaving deployment highly concentrated and dependent on a small number of large-scale projects.

Transport, synthetic fuels and fertilizers are emerging as key demand areas, reflecting opportunities in hard-to-electrify sectors, export-oriented e-fuels and domestic industrial decarbonization.

Latin America and the Caribbean possess some of the fundamental elements to become a low-carbon hydrogen hub, combining abundant renewable resources with growing export ambitions. However, project execution continues to lag this potential. More than half of the region’s potential 2030 capacity remains in the feasibility stage, while infrastructure constraints, limited domestic demand, financing challenges and lengthy permitting processes continue to delay final investment decisions. As a result, the region is unlikely to achieve its high-case capacity scenario by 2030 without significantly stronger policy support and accelerated project delivery.

The regional market is highly concentrated, with Chile and Brazil accounting for more than 80% of active and announced low-carbon hydrogen capacity expected by 2030. National strategies diverge, with Chile increasingly prioritizing domestic industrial demand and Brazil targeting export-oriented hydrogen production. While several flagship projects align with national strategies and strategic public partnerships - such as Panama’s SGP BioEnergy project, which relies on state-connected Panama Oil Terminals (POTSA) as logistics hubs - deployment remains dependent on a limited number of developments, leaving the pipeline vulnerable to delays and cancellations.

Transport is emerging as the principal source of demand for low-carbon hydrogen in LAC, with flagship projects demonstrating its application in mining locomotives, heavy-duty freight and hydrogen-powered trucking. At the same time, countries such as Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay are piloting hydrogen across marine shipping, synthetic fuels, power generation and fertilizers, illustrating a broadening range of end-use applications despite the market remaining in its early stages. International collaboration is also advancing hydrogen deployment, with the Brazil-Belgium green shipping corridor reinforcing LAC’s future role in hydrogen-derived fuel exports.

Regional certification frameworks, international partnerships and funding initiatives, including CertHiLAC, the LAC Clean Hydrogen Action Alliance and cooperation with the European Union, are improving project bankability and supporting future export competitiveness. However, recent project cancellations, such as the EDF Cabo Negro hydrogen plant in Southern Chile, as well as paused investments, such as CIP freezing the development of its HNH green ammonia project in the Magallanes region of Chile, all demonstrate that large, export-oriented projects remain the most exposed to weak offtake and financing constraints. As a result, some developers are prioritizing either smaller-scale, lower risk projects or refocusing on conventional renewables while demand for hydrogen matures.

Key Highlights

• South America ranks sixth regionally for active and upcoming low-carbon hydrogen capacity, with a total pipeline of approximately 6.8mtpa. However, less than 0.25% of this capacity is currently operational, highlighting that the region’s hydrogen market remains largely pre-commercial, with many projects still facing financing, infrastructure, and offtake challenges despite strong renewable resource potential.
• Looking ahead to the low-carbon hydrogen capacity set to come online in 2030 in LAC, around 54% is currently still at the feasibility stage, while almost 40% has already advanced to the approval stage and approximately 6% to FEED. This suggests gradual project maturation through the decade as governments expand hydrogen roadmaps and incentive frameworks, while developers increasingly target hydrogen derivatives such as ammonia, methanol, and e-fuels for export markets.
• The regional leaderboard has remained largely unchanged over the last year, with Chile and Brazil accounting for more than 80% of LAC’s active and upcoming hydrogen capacity. However, project cancellations and stalls in Brazil have caused the regional pipeline to contract.
• Transportation remains the dominant end-use sector, accounting for approximately 1.8mtpa of LAC’s active and upcoming low-carbon hydrogen capacity, spread across more than 80 projects.
• Power and marine shipping follow as the second- and third-largest end-use sectors. In power, hydrogen is mainly being positioned as a flexibility and backup fuel to support renewable-heavy grids, rather than as a generation source for baseload power.

Scope

• Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) hydrogen market in a global context
• Key regional projects
• Low-carbon hydrogen competitiveness drivers and barriers in LAC
• Leading countries in LAC for low-carbon hydrogen production
• Key companies and future leaders operating in LAC hydrogen market
• Intended use sectors for LAC hydrogen
• Hydrogen policies, strategies, and funding initiatives related to hydrogen in LAC

Reasons to Buy

• Identify the market trends within the region and key players in hydrogen technologies.
• Develop market insight into active and announced capacity and the latest trends of the sector.
• Understand the region's different capacity scenarios for 2030 based on the likelihood of project realization.
• Look at the demand in key application areas for the region, such as transport, marine shipping, synthetic fuels, and fertilizer.
• Identify key national policies and international partnerships aimed at aiding project bankability and supporting large-scale low-carbon hydrogen deployment across the region.

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