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AfrElec: Siemens seals 200-MW green hydrogen deal in Egypt

Siemens and Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) are to develop a 200-MW pilot green hydrogen production as part of a long-term effort to tap Egypt’s large renewable power resources for H2 production and export.

"Siemens Energy and EEHC will jointly promote investment, technology transfer and implementation of projects related to hydrogen production, based on renewable energy," Siemens said this week.

The project involves using electrolyser technology to turn water into hydrogen.

Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch said after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with EEHC that green hydrogen “has the capacity to significantly decarbonise industry and expand economic diversity. The development of a homegrown hydrogen ecosystem and value chain in Egypt has the potential to deliver a more sustainable and prosperous future for Egyptians”.

The pilot plant will “help to drive early technology deployment, establish a partner landscape, establish and test regulatory environment and certification, setup off-take relations, and define logistic concepts”, said Siemens Energy, without giving further details of possible location or timings of the project.

Siemens is well-established in Egypt, and its green subsidiary Siemens Gamesa supplies generation technology in both the fossil fuel sectors. Siemens is currently supplied 14,500 MW of gas-fired turbines to the country.

The deal with Siemens is one of a number that Egypt has signed with global developers.

In March, EEHC signed an agreement with Belgium's DEME group to explore the production of green hydrogen in the country.

In July, Italy’s Eni signed an agreement with EEHC and the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) to assess the technical and commercial feasibility of projects for the production of hydrogen in the country.

The country has 2.1 trillion cubic metres of gas reserves, the third largest in Africa behind Nigeria and Algeria.

The Ministry of Electricity aims to produce 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2022, and 42% by 2035.

However, the development of renewables is not without its problems.

In 2020, state-owned grid operator EETC cancelled a tender to develop 200 MW of solar PV generating capacity in the West Nile province as the government was worried about future over-supply of solar power and problems with grid connections.

The total installed capacity of the renewable energy sources is 5.5 GW, including 2.8 GW from hydroelectric plants (HPPs) and about 2.7 GW from wind and solar plants, including 1.4 GW from the Benban Solar Complex.

However, fossil fuels continue to dominate power generation, while renewables accounted for just 3.5 TWh of generating output in 2018, or 1.75%, compared with 160.9 TWh (80%) from gas and 13.5 TWh (6.75%) from hydro, according to government figures.

Including fuel oil, fossil fuels account for 90% of the country’s power needs, while CO2 emissions have reached 224.2mn tonnes and are rising.

Egypt currently has 50,000 MW of installed capacity. This includes 2,400 MW of hydro, 1,000 MW of wind and 170 MW of solar.

Alongside renewables, Egypt is also developing 4,800 MW of nuclear power together with Russia at El Dabaa, and is implementing it.