Masdar says Egypt’s abundance of photo voltaic and wind will “enable technology of renewable energy at a extremely aggressive value – a key enabler for inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing.”
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The UAE’s Masdar and Egypt’s Hassan Allam Utilities have signed agreements with state-backed Egyptian organizations that can see the events work collectively on the event of large-scale inexperienced hydrogen initiatives.
In an announcement Sunday, Masdar — which is owned by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala — mentioned the 2 agreements associated to amenities earmarked for the Mediterranean coast and Suez Canal Economic Zone.
The initiatives in Egypt are aiming for an electrolyzer capability of 4 gigawatts by the yr 2030, with manufacturing of as a lot as 480,000 tons of inexperienced hydrogen yearly.
Described by the International Energy Agency as a “versatile power service,” hydrogen has a various vary of functions and will be deployed in sectors equivalent to trade and transport.
It will be produced in a lot of methods. One technique contains utilizing electrolysis, with an electrical present splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.
If the electrical energy used on this course of comes from a renewable supply equivalent to wind or photo voltaic then some name it inexperienced or renewable hydrogen.
While there may be pleasure in some quarters about hydrogen’s potential, the overwhelming majority of its technology is presently based mostly on fossil fuels.
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“Masdar and Hassan Allam Utilities see Egypt as a hub for inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing, concentrating on the bunkering market, export to Europe, and boosting native trade,” Masdar mentioned in a press release.
“Egypt enjoys considerable photo voltaic and wind assets that enable technology of renewable energy at a extremely aggressive value — a key enabler for inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing,” it added. “Egypt can be situated inside shut proximity to markets the place demand for inexperienced hydrogen is predicted to develop essentially the most, offering strong alternative for export.”
Masdar’s point out of Europe is instructive and illustrates how the hydrogen sector may develop within the years forward as main economies try to decarbonize.
In July 2021, the CEO of Italian agency Snam outlined a imaginative and prescient for the way forward for hydrogen, saying the “magnificence” of it was that it may very well be simply saved and transported.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe,” Marco Alverà spoke about how present programs could be used to facilitate the supply of hydrogen produced utilizing renewable sources in addition to biofuels.
“Right now, should you flip in your heater in Italy the fuel is flowing from Russia, all the best way from Siberia, in pipelines,” he mentioned.
“Tomorrow, we may have hydrogen produced in North Africa, within the North Sea, with photo voltaic and wind assets,” Alverà mentioned. “And that hydrogen can journey via the present pipeline.”
For its half, the European Union’s government arm, the European Commission, has laid out plans to put in 40 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolyzer capability within the EU by the yr 2030.
Alongside this aim, the fee’s plan additionally envisages an additional 40 GW “in Europe’s neighbourhood” that might “export to the EU.”
The previous few years have seen a bunch of firms weigh in on the subject of hydrogen.
In a current interview with CNBC, Michele DellaVigna, Goldman Sachs’ commodity fairness enterprise unit chief for the EMEA area, sought to spotlight the necessary function he felt it might have going ahead.
“If we wish to go to net-zero we won’t do it simply via renewable energy,” he mentioned.
“We want one thing that takes at the moment’s function of pure fuel, particularly to handle seasonality and intermittency, and that’s hydrogen,” DellaVigna argued, occurring to explain hydrogen as “a really highly effective molecule.”
The key, he mentioned, was to “produce it with out CO2 emissions. And that is why we discuss inexperienced, we discuss blue hydrogen.”
Blue hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced utilizing pure fuel — a fossil gas — with the CO2 emissions generated throughout the course of captured and saved. There has been a charged debate across the function blue hydrogen can play within the decarbonization of society.
“Whether we do it with electrolysis or we do it with carbon seize, we have to generate hydrogen in a clear means,” DellaVigna mentioned. “And as soon as we’ve it, I believe we’ve an answer that might develop into, someday, at the least 15% of the worldwide power markets which implies it will likely be … over a trillion greenback market every year.”