2023-12-03T14:44:05+00:00
A-
A
A+
/ On Sunday, the Egyptian Suez Canal Authority Economic Zone signed a memorandum of understanding with a Norwegian company worth $1.1 billion to supply “green fuel” to ships passing through it.
The Economic Zone stated in a statement reported by Al Hurra website that it signed the memorandum with the Norwegian company SCATEC EA, on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai.
The agreement stipulates that the volume of production will reach “100,000 tons of green methanol annually by 2027, and the capacity of the electrolyzer will reach 190 megawatts, relying on 317 megawatts of wind energy and 140 megawatts of solar energy.”
The Egyptian government announced earlier this year that it was working on preparing a national strategy for green hydrogen in the country, in partnership with the European Bank, and it would include working to make Egypt “responsible for 8% of the world’s production of green hydrogen.”
According to official statistics, Cairo has already signed several agreements between Egypt’s sovereign fund and companies to produce green hydrogen, with investments amounting to about 83 billion dollars, on the sidelines of the climate conference that Egypt hosted in Sharm El-Sheikh last year.
According to the Information and Decision Support Centre, affiliated with the Prime Minister, it is expected to add to the gross domestic product “between 10 and 18 billion dollars, as a result of doubling the hydrogen economy by approximately 7 times by 2050.”
Also, 100,000 new jobs could be created if local capacities in hydrogen industries are increased.
Green hydrogen is a zero-carbon fuel and is produced by electrolysis of water, using renewable energy sources such as wind and sun to separate oxygen from hydrogen in water.
It is defined as hydrogen produced by splitting the H2O water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen, and this path is completely different compared to the gray and blue hydrogen.
The International Energy Agency indicates that green hydrogen will save 830 million tons of carbon dioxide that is emitted annually when producing this gas using fossil fuels.