Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
India and Egypt have signed an MoU to set up a green hydrogen plant with investments of $8 billion and a capacity of 220,000 tonnes annually in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouli was present on occasion.
The MoUs were signed by a number of government agencies as the first party: New & Renewable Energy Authority, General Authority of the Suez Canal Economic Zone, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, and Egypt’s Sovereign Fund; and Renew Power Private Ltd., one of the leading companies in the renewable energy industry in India, as the second party.
The MOU ceremony was also attended by Dr.Mohanmed Shaker, minister of electricity and renewables energy; Dr. Hala AI Saeed, minister of planning and economic development; and Ajit Gupte, Ambassador of India to Egypt.
According to the MoU, the Indian company will set up a plant to produce green hydrogen with a capacity of 20,000 tonnes annually, which can be raised to 220,000 tonnes annually, by using renewable energy sources at one location in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.
The project will be implemented in phases. In the experimental phase, it will produce 20,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually, through a 150-megawatt electrolysis device that provides 570 megawatts of renewable energy to produce 100,000 tonnes of green ammonia annually.
In the next phase (Phase 1), the project will be expanded to produce 200,000 tonnes annually of green hydrogen through 1.5 GW electrolysis device with 5.68 GW of renewable energy to produce one million tonnes of green ammonia annually, bringing the project’s total capacity to 220,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually.
Egyptian Minister of Electricity & Renewable Energy said, “The sites of renewable energy will be determined by the New & Renewable Energy Authority according to the regulations and procedures applicable and the produced energy will be transmitted through the national grid run by the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Co.”
The Minister added, “Egypt has an abundance of wind and solar energy resources through which it can generate renewable energy to produce green hydrogen and green ammonia. Egypt is a promising market that would become a global powerhouse in the green energy value chain.”
Yahia Zaki, head of the General Authority of the Suez Canal Economic Zone, pointed out the efforts the Authority is making with all concerned government stakeholders of turning to the green economy, especially the green hydrogen and green ammonia projects, and localizing these industries as Egypt will host the climate change summit next November. He noted the MoUs signed with global companies and alliances to establish green fuel projects for export purposes and to provide clean fuel supply services to ships.
Zaki added that the Suez Canal Economic Zone seeks to cooperate with the Indian side in the field of green hydrogen, and it has made significant progress in this field by signing several MoUs, some of which are expected to be put into effect during the COP27 to be held in Egypt next November in Sharm El-Sheikh.
“We are pleased to partner with one of the major renewable energy companies in India and globally, Renew Power Private Ltd.” said Ayman Suleiman, CEO of Egypt’s Sovereign Fund. “The partnership reflects the interest of global developers specialized in investing in such projects as they choose Egypt as a destination for investing in this field, in view of its strategic location and renewable energy resources that enable it to become a regional hub for green energy.”
He added, “The project comes under the Fund’s investment portfolio in the field of green hydrogen, which brings us closer to our goal of developing leading projects in the field of green energy as planned under the joint cooperation between the Ministry of Electricity, the Suez Canal Economic Zone, and Egypt’s Sovereign Fund.”
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