Egypt, India could establish a USD 8 bn green hydrogen plant: Egyptian government agencies signed an MoU with Indian renewables company ReNew Power to establish a green hydrogen plant in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), according to a cabinet statement. The plant will crank out 220k tons of hydrogen and 1 mn tons of green ammonia a year at full capacity and cost USD 8 bn to build, it said.

In detail: The facility will initially produce 20k tons of green hydrogen and 100k tons of green ammonia annually, the statement said. It will be powered using 5.7 GW of renewable energy when running at maximum capacity.

Who’s involved? The Sovereign Fund of Egypt, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone and the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) all signed the agreement with ReNew Power.

Nothing’s definite yet: The MoU isn’t a final agreement, but will see the participants conduct feasibility studies for the plant.

What they said: “This partnership reflects the interest of global developers in Egypt, seeing what it has to offer from strategic location and renewable resources, enabling it to become a regional hub for green energy,” Sovereign Fund of Egypt CEO Ayman Soliman said.

We’re becoming regional hub for green energy: The government is making moves to capitalize on investment momentum ahead of COP27 by establishing the SCZone as a regional green energy hub. Major global companies have signed USD 18 bn worth of preliminary agreements for green ammonia and hydrogen projects in Ain Sokhna this year. (That figure includes the USD 8 bn for this ReNew Power MoU.)

Indian companies have appetite for Egypt: Indian corporations have expressed interest this week in investing as much as USD 700 mn in Egypt, according to Indian Ambassador Ajit Gupte. Firms are interested in a number of sectors, including renewable energy, fertilizers, pharma and chemicals, he said.