Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power eyes three more giant hydrogen plants

Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power eyes three more giant hydrogen plants

Riyadh: Saudi Arabian energy company Acwa Power is planning to develop as many as three more green hydrogen plants on a similar scale to its vast project being built at Neom. Acwa has plans to develop two more projects adjacent to a $8.5 billion green hydrogen plant at Neom, a $500 billion new city on Saudi Arabia’s north-west coast, chief executive officer Paddy Padmanathan said in an interview. The company is also looking at another location, confident that demand for the fuel will rise as governments and companies accelerate plans to reduce their carbon emissions, he said. “Acwa Power itself can do five of these projects without blinking,” Padmanathan said. “Now that we have financially closed the first one, we are looking in parallel to two others.” Green hydrogen is made when wind and solar power are used to split water atoms. The fuel’s seen as crucial to the clean-energy transition in the coming decades. It’s still far more expensive than oil and natural gas, but developers are confident they can bring down costs enough to make green hydrogen competitive. Future green hydrogen projects would likely be developed by the same consortium behind the Neom Green Hydrogen Company, which also