NEOM’s green hydrogen facility begins construction

 

NEOM’s green hydrogen facility begins construction

The first green hydrogen production facility at NEOM in northern Saudi Arabia has begun construction.

The large-scale facility, in which ACWA Power is partnering with Air Products, will despatch 600 tonnes of green hydrogen per day – enough to power 20,000 buses, or abate 5m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2).

The project’s 2.2GW electrolysers will be fed by 4GW of renewable energy, and it aims to produce 1.2 million tonnes of green hydrogen-based ammonia annually.

“We now can show what’s really possible and we are confident to multiply that,” said Paddy Padmanathan, Vice-Chairman and CEO of ACWA Power, speaking on a panel at the Dii Desert Energy Leadership Summit in Cairo (November 3-5), announcing the start of the project’s construction. 

“We have already started work on a similar-sized project in Oman and embarked on one in Egypt. On the renewable energy front, we are busy developing projects that are typically 2GW. The volume of activity is such that, as capacity and technology expands, industrial capacity is located in these countries – and that’s starting to happen.”

He said it was able to take advantage of the MENA region’s abundant solar and wind energy, land availability, political stability and credit references, to attract capital investments required. ACWA Power has a market capitalisation of $35bn.

Paul van Son, President of Dii Desert Energy, emphasized the value of networking between countries and continents, and a functioning market with exchange among each other is the best way to ensure security of supply.

“That is why there is now an initiative to create a trading platform exclusively for zero-emission energy,” he said. “In this way, CO2 reduction can be decoupled from physical transport. Similar to ‘green electricity’ … a certificate system can significantly accelerate the development towards climate-neutral forms of energy.”

Cornelius Matthes, CEO Dii Desert Energy, expects a “massive acceleration” in the next few years – saying its hydrogen projects have risen from 37 to 61 – as a result of falling prices, improving technologies, and convergence of several factors which will hasten development.

“Hydrogen can become the new oil and gas,” he said. “Egypt can generate more revenues from hydrogen than gas in the mid term, and we see a lot of projects coming. The Suez can be the ‘centre of gravity’ locally and internationally.”

Katherina Reiche, Chairwoman of the Board of Westenergie AG  and Chairwoman of the National Hydrogen Council of the German Government, presented a slide showing the targets for hydrogen in Europe’s largest economy. She said the goal was to produce hydrogen at $1 per kilogram by 2025. 

She said, “The European Commission should decide to not only have state aid not just for CAPEX but also OPEX investment. In future we have to combine different subsidies. It’s now time to go for the investments, and we need better regulations which make it possible to invest much faster. The Inflation Reduction Act shows what political decisions can make.”

In the western Mediterranean, several gas pipelines can be used to transport hydrogen. In addition, similar infrastructure projects for the development of hydrogen potential are currently being discussed in the eastern Mediterranean region. In this way, Europe could make itself less dependent on political developments in individual countries in future.

Source: https://www.h2-view.com/