France's Voltalia SA and Egyptian energy company TAQA Arabia have signed on Wednesday a memorandum of understanding to develop, finance, and operate a cluster combining green hydrogen production with solar and wind power generation in Egypt. The proposed project will include a new green hydrogen production facility with a capacity of 15,000 tonnes per year, in a greenfield site near Ain Sokhna port, through a 100-megawatt electrolyser supplied with 283 megawatts of renewable power, Voltalia and TAQA said in a joint statement on Thursday. Further, the project will be expanded to 150,000 tonnes per year of green hydrogen with an electrolyser capacity of up to an aggregate of 1 gigawatt supplied by an aggregate of 2.7 gigawatts of solar and wind power. The Egyptian government will provide the land required to build the cluster. The initial shareholders of the cluster will be Voltalia, as a majority partner, and TAQA Arabia. the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) (TSFE), and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) will have the right to become minority shareholders. The MoU was signed by Ayman Soliman, CEO of TSFE; Walid Gamal El-Din, Chairman of SCZone; Pakinam Kafafi, CEO of TAQA Arabia; Karim El Ezzawy, Voltalia Country Manager; Mohamed El-Khayat, Chairman of the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA); and Salah Ezzat, vice chairman of the EETC. The signing ceremony took place in Cairoin the presence of Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Planning Hala El Said, Minister of Public Enterprise Mahmoud Essmat, and Khaled Abu Bakr, Executive Chairman of TAQA Arabia. Contributing to the Egypt's constructive vision to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix, Voltalia said it is committed to supporting the country's goal of a 42% renewable share of total generation capacity by 2035. "Voltalia has been active in Egypt since 2017 having developed, built and operated its Râ Solar project within the Benban cluster. This green hydrogen project will be a first for Voltalia and will allow us to broaden our range of renewable solutions to clients" said Sébastien Clerc, CEO of Voltalia. "We are thrilled to partner with the French Voltalia, a leading renewable energy player and a service provider with strong global presence. As Egypt's leading private sector energy and utility provider, TAQA Arabia is committed to contribute to building Egypt's green economy." said Khaled Abu Bakr, Executive Chairman of TAQA Arabia. "This cooperation comes in support of Egypt's sustainable energy strategy 2035," Abu Bakr added. On Wednesday, the Egyptian government signed seven new memoranda of understanding with local and international companies to study projects for the production of green hydrogen and its derivatives, a Cabinet statement said on Wednesday.
