Egypt allocates over 16,000. square miles for green hydrogen

The country’s government has made this space available to the Office for New and Renewable Energy Sources

The Egyptian government has allocated a huge area of ​​41,700 square kilometers (over 16,000 square miles) to be used for the production of green hydrogen.

The goal is to provide enough space for clean energy resources

The area has been designated for use by the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), which will provide it with land needed to expand renewable energy projects.

Green hydrogen is a type of pure H2 produced by the electrolysis of water powered by renewable energy such as solar and wind energy. Therefore, in order to actually increase the production of this type of H2, appropriate areas for the production of renewable energy are necessary.

Egypt is particularly rich when it comes to sunshine and constant wind, which means that by devoting enough land to solar and wind farms, it has the potential to generate significant amounts of clean electricity.

Green hydrogen will enable the country to store and transport clean energy

The challenges of generating electricity through renewable methods such as solar and wind power include its dependence on sunny days, daylight hours and regular winds. Therefore, they can produce much more electricity than needed during peak production periods and produce no electricity at other times.

By using electricity to produce green hydrogen, it can be stored and transported for use where and when required.

The land allocation for clean energy production was announced during a cabinet meeting convened by NREA Chairman Mohamed El-Khayat.

According to El-Khayat, there is still 900 square kilometers (about 560 square miles) left that have not yet been allocated for use in green energy production.

That said, the allocated space is specifically earmarked for green hydrogen production facilities, for which 27 memorandums of understanding have already been signed between a number of different clean energy investors.

A strategy for mass production of clean energy

In total, the various projects that will use the allocated space will have a capacity of approximately 115 gigawatts (GW). This total includes 63 GW of wind energy and 52 GW of solar energy.

Some of the land approved by the Egyptian government for this use is located along the Red Sea and in the Suez provinces. They will have an estimated capacity of 4.4 GW of wind power and 11 GW of solar power, El-Khayat said.