Gov’t, Egyptian-French alliance sign MoU to establish project to produce 350K tons of green fuel annually

CAIRO – 20 April 2022: The Egyptian government and an Egyptian-French alliance signed on Wednesday an MoU to establish a project in the Suez Canal Economic Zone in Ain Sokhna to produce 350,000 tons of green fuel annually as a fuel for ships.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly witnessed the signing ceremony of the MoU between Egypt’s General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone, Sovereign Fund, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, the New and Renewable Energy Authority, and the Green Fuel Alliance consisting of France’s EDF Renewables and Egypt’s Zero Waste.

Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker and Minister of Planning Hala Al-Saeed attended the ceremony.

The MoU aims to establish a project to produce 140,000 tons of green ammonia annually, which can be gradually increased to about 350,000 tons per year, with $3 billion worth of investments, according to a Cabinet statement.

The facility will be fed with green hydrogen produced from desalinated seawater and renewable energy generated at the sites through the national electricity grid.

The facility will be established starting 2024 and commercial operation will start in 2026, the statement said.

Madbouly, for his part, stressed that the Egyptian state is keen to sign MoUs on more projects that support the transition to a green economy.

He pointed out that cooperation with the Green Fuel Alliance is part of a series of several global partnerships that the government concludes to exploit Egypt’s enormous capabilities to produce green hydrogen and green ammonia, which would enable it to become a regional center for green energy.

Late last month, Egypt and Norway signed an agreement on the construction and operation of a project to produce green hydrogen with a capacity of 100 MW in the SCZone in Ain Shokhna.

The two countries also signed an agreement on buying hydrogen. The agreement comes while Egypt and Norway’s Scatec company signed last month an MoU on the construction of Egypt’s first ammonia plant, which comes at a cost of $5 billion.