Sharm El Sheikh – As part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP27) taking place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre launched the first phase of a project to build a large green hydrogen plant in Ain Soukhna, with a production capacity of 100 megawatts. Pictured above, Sisi (center) and Støre (right).
The venture will be carried out in cooperation with Norwegian company Scatec, which specializes in renewable energy systems. Sisi said the project brings a practical investment partnership model to encourage sustainable economic development, with the domestic and foreign private sectors playing their roles alongside the government.
Norwegian company Scatec participated in the Benban Solar Energy Complex project, located in southern Egypt, in the province of Aswan. The solar park is one of the largest solar energy complexes in the world, with a total capacity of 1.8 gigawatts.
Egypt has developed a strategy to expand the deployment of green hydrogen projects, including the Ain Soukhna plant. The country intends to produce green hydrogen at the world’s lowest price and contribute to 8% of the sector’s global market. The Egyptian president said green hydrogen had become one of the most critical solutions to a green economy in the forthcoming years.
Developing countries
However, Sisi warned of the challenges arising from the tendency of some countries to support the local production of green hydrogen to reduce its cost. According to him, this causes an imbalance in the global hydrogen market and reduces the competitiveness of developing countries to developed ones.
The Egyptian president defended the increasing participation of developing countries in green hydrogen projects and said currently, the share of these nations in ventures in the area is only up to two projects out of the approximately 680 proposed worldwide. According to him, it is clear developing countries still have reduced possibilities of taking advantage of green hydrogen opportunities due to meager flows of financing and investment.
Sisi also announced a new initiative, the Global Forum on Renewable Hydrogen, which Egypt and Belgium have been working on in recent months with collaboration from various partners. The forum aims to create a permanent dialogue platform between hydrogen-producing and consuming countries, including the private sector, organizations, and financial institutions. The platform is expected to coordinate the development of policies and guidelines and create pathways for trade and investment in hydrogen, contributing to the sector’s growth.
Translated by Georgette Merkhan & Elúsio Brasileiro
