Acwa Power expands its presence in Egypt: Renewables giant Acwa Power inked an agreement with the Egyptian government to develop a large-scale two-phase green hydrogen and ammonia project in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), according to a statement. The first phase — predicted to cost USD 4 bn — will have the capacity to produce 600k tons of green ammonia annually, while the second phase will expand the plant’s output by another 2 mn tons. The predicted investment value of the second phase was not disclosed, as well as the expected timeline for the entire project.

We knew this was coming: Acwa Power signed a non-binding agreement with the SCZone to establish a green fuel production plant back in May. At the time, the SCZone did not disclose the type of green fuels, the production capacity, financials, or timeline for establishing the facility, though it did say that the MoU should be turned into a framework agreement “soon.”

Acwa Power ? Egypt’s green sector: The company aims to capture a 50% share of Egypt’s renewables market by 2026, CEO Marco Arcelli said in August. Arcelli explained that a planned USD 10 bn green investments allocated for Egypt will be disbursed within three years. The company has so far invested a total of USD 2.5 bn in Egypt on five projects with a combined capacity of 1.85 GW. Three of the projects are megascale in size and are scheduled for operation in 2026.

And other players are interested: SCZone inked an agreement with China Energy Engineering Corporation in October for a USD 6.75 bn green hydrogen plant which will span 500k square meters and generate 210k tons of green hydrogen annually. A consortium of three Egyptian companies is also considering investing USD 1.2 bn into the first phase of a plant set to produce 400k tons of ammonia annually from green hydrogen.

Acwa has global hydrogen ambitions: The company broke ground on its green hydrogen production facility in Uzbekistan last month with a capacity of 3k tons of green hydrogen annually. During COP28, Acwa also signed an agreement with Indonesia's PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to build Indonesia's largest green hydrogen facility. The Saudi renewables giant also signed an MoU with Jordan’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for a feasibility study to produce 100-150k tons of green ammonia annually. Last year, Acwa Power said it will establish a USD 7 bn green hydrogen and derivatives production project in Thailand.

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