Lots more green energy investment: Seven international companies have signed early agreements to build facilities that will produce mns of tons of green fuel in the Ain Sokhna Industrial Zone, cabinet said in a statement on Thursday. The plants will have a combined annual capacity of around 5.5 mn tons, with the fuel will be exported abroad and sold to the shipping industry, the statement said.

Who’s in? The UK’s Globeleq, Saudi Arabia’s Al Fanar, Emirati firms Alcazar Energy and K&K, Mediterranean Energy Partners, Indian clean energy company ACME, and global private equity giant Actis all signed agreements.

In detail:

• Globeleq’s 10 mn sqm plant — the largest of the seven in terms of land size — is set to produce 2 mn tons of green hydrogen once fully operational, with 55k tons produced during the trial phase. The plant is set to come online in 2026.
• Actis expects to invest some USD 370 mn in its 200k-ton facility, which should become operational “within the coming year,” Actis partner and head of MENA Sherif El Kholy told Enterprise.
• Al Fanar said its facility will produce 500k tons of green ammonia and 100k tons of green hydrogen a year.
• ACME’s plant will have a maximum annual capacity of 2.2 mn tons.
• Alcazar and K&K have proposed to build smaller 230k-ton per-year facilities.
• Mediterranean Energy Partners has signed an agreement to construct a plant for producing green ammonia, which would output 120k tons a year.

What’s next: The companies will now begin conducting feasibility studies on the plants, the statement says.

What we don’t know: No details about the investment values of the facilities were disclosed. Aside from Globeleq, the statement does not include information about the expected timeline of completion for any of the plants.

What they said: Actis’ investment is “a continuation of our commitment to Egypt where we have a 20 year track-record of investing over USD 1 bn in some of the country’s most strategically important businesses and projects,” El Kholy said in a statement (pdf).

These agreements are the latest in a string of interest and investment in green hydrogen here in Egypt. International companies have signed USD 18 bn worth of preliminary agreements for green ammonia and hydrogen projects in Ain Sokhna this year. The push towards investing in green hydrogen comes as the government looks to capitalize on investment momentum in green energy in the lead-up to COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh this November.

NEED MORE BACKGROUND? We looked at what makes Egypt well-suited to grow a green hydrogen industry — and where the bottlenecks are in getting these projects off the ground in Going Green, our weekly look at the green economy in Egypt.