Middle Eastern oil producer Oman plans to build one of the largest green hydrogen plants in the world. The plant will be powered by 25 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy and could cost as much as US$30 billion, according to one of the project partners.
Oman's state-held energy company OQ, Hong-Kong-based green fuels developer InterContinental Energy, and Kuwait's government-backed clean energy investor and developer, EnerTech, announced on Tuesday the plan for one of the biggest facilities of green hydrogen in the world.
OQ is "developing one of the biggest Green fuels projects in the world with the capacity of 25 gigawatts that will transform Oman's renewable energy capacity," the state energy company of Oman said.
The project to produce hydrogen from renewable electricity may cost around US$30 billion, Alicia Eastman, co-founder and president of InterContinental Energy, told Bloomberg in an interview.
The consortium has been collaborating on analysis for the future project for more than three years and will use its relationships and partnerships to secure long-term product sales agreements.
"Given the site's strategic location between Europe and Asia, as well as excellent solar irradiance and wind resource facing the Arabian Sea, the development is well positioned to offer a secure and reliable supply of green fuels globally at a highly competitive price," InterContinental Energy said in a statement.
The mega project is expected to decarbonize the energy industry and provide green hydrogen or derivatives such as green ammonia to international customers, Oman's OQ said.
A final investment decision for the project is expected in 2026 or later, Bloomberg quoted InterContinental Energy as saying.
Hydrogen, especially green hydrogen made of water electrolysis using electricity from solar or wind, has been gaining momentum in recent years. Hydrogen now features in nearly every strategy of Big Oil and can be seen in many government plans for industry decarbonization. Hydrogen is expected to play a prominent role in lowering the carbon emissions from energy-intensive industries.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More