Going for green

Green hydrogen is Egypt’s next great investment opportunity.

So said Minister of International Co-operation Rania al-Mashat in a recent meeting with a visiting US investor team and the US business community in Egypt.

The minister’s remark came a few days after Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli told a landmark press conference that Egypt is on track to becoming a major green hydrogen production centre.

The credibility of Madbouli’s remarks rest on the fact that some of the largest international companies in green hydrogen have pledged to invest $40 billion by 2030, so that Egypt will become the go-to place for green hydrogen. Madbouli said a variety of investment incentives will be launched, notably green incentives.

Recent study by Rystad Energy, an independent energy research and business intelligence company explains why foreign investors should go for the chances of green hydrogen expansion in Egypt.

Egypt has all the prerequisites to become a green hydrogen giant – fantastic renewable potential, space for megaprojects and construction expertise, the authors of the research say.

“Interest shown by international developers in Egypt is due to some favourable factors including the country’s location, natural gas infrastructure, liquefaction facilities, bunkering market and marine ports, as well as its high solar and wind potential. Egypt is also close to markets like the European Union and the Middle East – regions set to see a huge demand for hydrogen in the coming years,” the research suggests.

The Egyptian government is giving such projects close attention, the researchers added. The establishing, operating, and managing hydrogen projects require a single permit.

Additional incentives could include special customs points for export/import, utility connection costs passed on to the state, and the reimbursement of 50 per cent of land allocation costs (provided that the project is in production within two years) and other non-fiscal incentives.

Moreover, almost 80 per cent of the announced green hydrogen projects in Egypt are planned for the SCZone, a global logistics hub that aims to connect Europe, Africa, and Asia through the Arabian Gulf. The SCZone handles one fifth of the international container trade and 10 per cent of the seaborne trade.

Today, Egypt’s pipeline for green hydrogen projects stands at 11.62 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to over 1.57 million tonnes of green hydrogen, ranking the country in the top three green hydrogen pipelines globally, after Australia and on par with Mauritania.

Hydrogen is known as a powerful, transportable energy carrier that can produce electricity, power industry, and enable transportation. Several experts see it as the fuel of the future that can help achieve net-zero carbon emissions from the industrial sector.

Going on track to being a hydrogen giant will not only be a game-changer for the Egyptian economy, but also can turn it into an important part of the future energy equation.