ReNew to set up hydrogen plant in Egypt
2 min read 28 Jul 2022, 05:01 PM ISTReNew currently has a portfolio of 4.23 GW of wind energy assets and 5.82 GW of solar power assets across India. Last month, ReNew had signed definitive agreements to acquire 527.9 MW in operating wind and solar assets
PremiumNASDAQ-listed ReNew Power has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Egyptian government agencies and a sovereign fund to set up a green hydrogen manufacturing facility at the Suez Canal Economic Zone in Egypt.
The facility will entail a total investment of up to $8 billion, said the Egyptian embassy in India in a Facebook post.
According to the MoU, ReNew will set up a plant with a capacity to produce 20,000 tonne green hydrogen a year, which will later be raised to 220,000 tonne, by relying on renewable energy sources.
Signatories to the MoU included ReNew, General Authority for the Economic Zone of the Suez Canal, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt.
The project is scheduled to be implemented in phases, the first of which will be a pilot to produce 20,000 tonne green hydrogen, through a 150 MW electrolyzer equipped with 570 MW of renewable energy to produce 100,000 tons of green ammonia annually.
Yahya Zaki, head of the Suez Canal Economic Zone General Authority, said that the Suez Canal Economic Zone seeks to cooperate with ReNew in the field of green hydrogen.
Ayman Soliman, CEO of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, said, “We are pleased to partner with one of the largest renewable energy producers in India and in the world, Renew Power Private Limited, as this partnership reflects the interest of global developers specialized in investing in such projects by choosing Egypt as a destination for investment in this field, due to its strategic location and renewable energy resources that enable it to transform into a regional center for green energy."
On 26 July, Mint had reported that ReNew Power is looking at setting up green hydrogen projects in Egypt, Oman and Morocco.
All the three countries have major plans for green hydrogen production in their efforts for decarbonization. Egypt’s pipeline for green hydrogen projects stands at over 11 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to over 1.57 million tonne of green hydrogen. The government of Egypt plans to release a $40-billion hydrogen plan.
In April, along with state-run Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T), ReNew Power had announced forming a joint venture (JV) company to produce green hydrogen in the country with equal equity investment.
ReNew currently has a portfolio of 4.23 GW of wind energy assets and 5.82 GW of solar power assets across India. Last month, ReNew had signed definitive agreements to acquire 527.9 MW in operating wind and solar assets.
The company has also announced investing ₹1 trillion in total in both Maharashtra and Karnataka in renewable energy projects, including battery storage. In May, the Goldman Sachs-backed company said it was planning to develop renewable energy projects in Maharashtra across wind, solar, hybrid power, battery storage and green hydrogen at an investment of ₹50,000 crore. It plans to spend another ₹50,000 crore in Karnataka for developing green energy projects.
