Energy and infrastructure company Jakson Group is planning to build green hydrogen projects across West Asia and North Africa, Sameer Gupta, chairman and managing director of the group, said in an interview.
The overseas green hydrogen projects will be driven by the group’s clean energy arm, Jakson Green Pvt. Ltd. “The intension is not only to look for solar EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) projects, but also for hydrogen and ammonia projects both in India and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. To explore the opportunities, we have also opened our offices in Dubai and Johannesburg.”
Jakson group is also in talks with potential partners in the regions, he added.
Considering the potential of West Asian and North African countries as leading suppliers of green hydrogen, the industry has witnessed increasing interest from investors.
An in-house research study by Abu Dhabi’s Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC) said that the region is projected to be the largest supplier of green hydrogen globally, accounting for a bulk of export-oriented low carbon hydrogen projects.
UAE has a majority share of around 29% of green and blue hydrogen energy projects as of 2021, followed by Egypt and Morocco at 19.35%, each.
Many homegrown renewable energy companies, including ReNew Power are looking to set up green hydrogen projects in the region.
ReNew signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Egyptian government agencies and the country’s sovereign fund in July to set up a green hydrogen manufacturing unit at the Suez Canal Economic Zone. ACME Group signed a land agreement in June to build a green ammonia project in Oman.
Jakson Group also plans to set up green hydrogen projects in India and is in talks with a few states, Gupta said. “We are talking to some state governments, and some overseas in MENA region.”
The company is also looking at acquisitions and strategic partnerships in other “futuristic energy” businesses such as electrolyzers, batteries and fuel cells. “Either we will have acquisitions or strategic partnerships, where both companies will financially participate. ...we are looking at long term relationships,” Gupta added.
The company is present in distributed energy business, solar power projects and solar module production. Distributed energy includes battery energy storage systems.
It has a solar module manufacturing capacity of 600 MW, and is looking to scale to 1 GW by December 2022, he said.
Catch all the Industry News, Banking News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
MoreLess