Egypt's Ministry of Electricity is planning to implement three green hydrogen projects with a total capacity of 300 megawatts (MW) in partnership with the private sector, a top ministry official said.

Undersecretary Ahmed Mahiena told Zawya Projects that each project would have a capacity of 100 MW.

The Ministry had signed agreements with German, Belgian, and Italian companies last year to set up green hydrogen projects in the country, the official said on the sidelines of a renewable energy event organised by Edge Innovation Centre in Cairo. 

"Last year, in January, we had signed a letter of intent with Germany's Siemens to establish a pilot project for producing green hydrogen. In March, we signed a cooperation agreement with the Belgian DEME Group to conduct studies on the production of green hydrogen in the country. In July, we signed an MoU with the Itay's Eni to evaluate the technical and commercial feasibility of projects for producing green and blue hydrogen in Egypt."

"The three companies would be responsible for marketing and selling the surplus hydrogen abroad," Mahiena added.

He also disclosed that the Ministry would update Egypt's Energy Strategy 2035 to include green hydrogen.

Earlier, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker had revealed that Egypt plans to invest up to $4 billion to produce green hydrogen through electrolysis.

In August 2021, Siemens Energy had announced it had signed an MoU with Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) to develop a hydrogen-based industry in Egypt with export capability jointly. It said in a press statement that as part of the initial steps, Siemens Energy and EEHC would pursue developing a pilot project comprising 100 to 200 MW of electrolyser capacity.

Mahiena also said the Ministry is planning to desalinate six million cubic metres of seawater through renewable energy instead of diesel.

He pointed out that before 2014, Egypt had a 25 percent deficit in electricity, but that has now been turned into a surplus due to the expansion of the renewable energy sector.

(Reporting by Marwa Abo Almajd; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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