UAE aims to capture 25% of hydrogen market share: Suhail Al Mazrouei

The minister said that as part of the country’s hydrogen roadmap, it is currently implementing seven projects and looks forward to export hydrogen

By Reuters, Wam

Published: Mon 17 Jan 2022, 5:35 PM

Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, has said the UAE is aiming to capture around a quarter of the global hydrogen market with hydrogen produced both by electrolysis and from natural gas.

The minister said that as part of the country’s hydrogen roadmap, it is currently implementing seven projects and looks forward to export hydrogen.

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“There has been already discussion with many countries who we supply with hydrocarbons today, and they are keen to get hydrogen,” he said.

He said that the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) is a global platform for starting a promising era of sustainable development and highlights the UAE’s leading efforts to build a more sustainable global future.

In his statement to the Emirates News Agency (Wam) during the launch of ADSW 2022, Al Mazrouei stressed that the UAE has become a leader in utilising low-carbon energy, due to the directives of its leadership.

The UAE also priorities the diversification of energy sources, which helps maintain a balance between sustainable development and environmental protection, he added.

The UAE has adopted a transparent green transformation strategy, which includes investing in green energy, crowned by the announcement of its plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, he further added.

Hydrogen is a source of green energy that will support the country’s green transformation efforts, Al Mazrouei pointed out. The UAE has the first green hydrogen production plant in the Middle East.

100 GW of RE capacity

Meanwhile, Masdar has the ambition to increase to 100 gigawatts the capacity of projects it is developing globally, UAE Industry Minister Sultan Al Jaber said on Monday in Dubai.

“Abu Dhabi-based Masdar has invested in wind and solar projects in 40 countries around the globe,” said Al Jaber, who is also the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) chief executive officer.

“Our ambition is to accelerate this development globally to reach 100 GW and ultimately double that again to 200 GW,” he said without specifying a timeframe for the capacity increase. The Abu Dhabi goverment last month announced plans to increase Masdar’s capacity to more than 50 gigawatts by 2030.

The minister was attending the opening of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week Summit at the Expo 2020 site in Dubai.

The UAE plans to lead in hydrogen production and help achieve carbon neutrality, as part of its leadership’s directives to find solutions to issues caused by climate change, he said. Solar power, peaceful nuclear power and hydrogen all play a crucial role in future international efforts to reduce carbon emissions, he added.

ADSW 2022 is the first major international event in the area of sustainability to be held after the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and will pave the way for COP27, hosted by Egypt in 2022, and COP28, hosted by the UAE in 2023. — Wam, Reuters