By: AGBI

Saudi Arabia has granted Acwa Power the exclusive rights to export hydrogen and other green fuels as the country accelerates the development of non-fossil energy projects.

The state-backed company will also develop huge cross-border networks to take renewable electricity from the kingdom into Europe and other Middle Eastern countries.

Saudi Arabia is racing to become a clean-energy powerhouse under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plans. It is building vast desert wind and solar farms as well as facilities to produce fuels such as green hydrogen.

These include what is to be the world’s largest hydrogen-making plant at the Neom giga-project, which will produce up to 600 tonnes of carbon-free hydrogen per day by 2027.

Hydrogen is used widely around the world, mainly in oil refining and in the production of ammonia and fertilisers. Governments across the Middle East and North Africa are backing some of the industry’s biggest green hydrogen projects, aiming to use cheap renewable power to become major exporters of low-carbon fuels in the 2030s.

Green hydrogen uses renewable electricity – typically from solar or wind farms – to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, through a process known as electrolysis.

Its main uses are fuelling heavy transport such as buses, creating clean fertilisers and in steel production.

Acwa, which is listed on the Tadawul, will also have a monopoly on exporting green ammonia, green methanol and green fuels.

Why Mena is still backing green hydrogen despite demand doubts
The group has a portfolio of 111 assets across 16 countries and assets under management valued at SAR469 billion ($125 billion).

Acwa chief executive Samir Serhan said: “Green hydrogen and renewable electricity exports represent the next chapter in the kingdom’s energy leadership, creating new opportunities for economic growth while contributing to global energy security and the energy transition.”

Shares in Acwa Power, which is 44 percent owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, closed at SAR192.90 on Monday. The stock was up about 6 percent year-to-date.