Masdar and Germany’s Uniper to build green hydrogen plant in UAE

Masdar and Germany’s Uniper to build green hydrogen plant in UAE

Germany’s Uniper SE is teaming up with Masdar, one of the Middle East’s biggest renewable-energy firms, to make green hydrogen in the UAE. The two companies will build a plant that will run on almost 1.3 gigawatts of solar power and is expected to produce hydrogen from 2026, Masdar’s executive director for clean energy, Mohammad Abdelqadar El Ramahi, said in an interview. Uniper’s shareholders agreed a €33bn ($35bn) rescue this week that will lead to the utility’s nationalisation and avoid its collapse following a surge in natural-gas prices in the wake of the Ukranian crisis. The German government expects Uniper to strengthen its climate targets in the coming years. Green hydrogen is seen as crucial to the global transition to clean energy. While still too expensive to compete with fossil fuels, it’s widely predicted to develop into a mass market in the next decade. Green hydrogen emits no planet-warming gases when burned and is created when renewable energy — typically wind or solar power — is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. “The project in UAE with Masdar has already seen impressive public support,” said a spokesperson for Uniper. They declined to provide more detail on the plans.