Egypt's green hydrogen projects to curb carbon emissions by 39M tons per annum

CAIRO – 17 November 2022: Spokesperson of the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy Ayman Hamza stated Wednesday that the nine green hydrogen agreements Egypt had signed would curb carbon emissions by 39 million tons a year.

The value of the projects to be established per those agreements is $85 billion, creating 45,000 direct jobs and 230,000 indirect jobs. The spokesperson clarified that the green hydrogen would be produced through wind and solar energy.

That is why a number of MoUs have been signed with a number of international companies and coalitions to generate 28,000 megawatts of wind energy, and 34,000 megawatts of solar energy.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi announced on November 8 at COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh the operation of the first phase of Egypt's hydrogen plant, which has been established in partnership with Norway's Scatec.

The plant is located in Ain Sokhna, and the capacity of its first phase is 100 megawatts.

In October 2021, the Sovereign Fund of Egypt signed an agreement with Norway's Fertiglobe plc, a leading ammonia producer jointly owned by OCI N.V. and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and Norway’s Scatec to establish a green hydrogen facility, whose output would be used in the production green ammonia.

As per the agreement, Scatec would build and operate the facility, generating green hydrogen with quantities ranging from 50 to 100 megawatts, and then supply to EBIC, which is owned by Fertiglobe, so it would produce more than 45 metric tons of green ammonia per year.

In March, Egypt signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Scatec to produce green ammonia from green hydrogen. Parties of the MoU included the General Authority for the Economic Zone of the Suez Canal, the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, in addition to the Authority for the Development and Use of New and Renewable Energy.

The investment cost of the project is estimated at about $5 billion, and it would be implemented in two phases, and production is expected to start in 2025.