Norwegian renewables company Scatec has signed a memorandum of understanding with the General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE), The Sovereign Fund of Egypt, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, and the New and Renewable Energy Authority to develop a large-scale green ammonia plant in Egypt.
The green hydrogen and ammonia facility will be the first large-scale project of green ammonia in the country. It will have a production capacity of one million tonnes annually, with a potential expansion to three million tonnes and will be located in the SCZONE in Ain Sokhna Industrial Zone.
Earlier this week, Scatec partnered with Indian solar developer ACME Power to develop a large-scale green ammonia facility in Oman with a first phase that will be powered by 500MW of solar PV and produce 100,000 tonnes of green ammonia per year before scaling up to 1.2 million tonnes once fully developed.
Scatec told PV Tech that it will use the technology that is most cost efficient for the project but hasn’t determined yet which renewable source to use between solar and wind, or a combination of both, for the project.
With the facility’s proximity to the canal of Suez, the green ammonia will mainly be exported to Europe and Asia.
Raymond Carlsen, CEO of Scatec, said: “We believe that no effort should be spared to accelerate the energy transition, and we are thrilled to be contributing to Egypt’s aspiration to become a hub for green fuel.”
The project will also see the participation of the Egyptian government, who is hosting the COP27 later this year in Sharm Elsheikh.