Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi urged on Saturday the preparation of an integrated national strategy for the production of green hydrogen in light of the growing international interest in this promising source of energy for the near future.

Green hydrogen is the hydrogen fuel created by using renewable energy instead of fossil fuels to almost eliminate harmful emissions.

Meeting with Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker, El-Sisi urged the preparation of an integrated strategy for hydrogen production in cooperation with different state sectors, a statement by the presidency read.

The strategy targets empowering Egypt to generate and use hydrogen, coping with the international progress in this field along with international experiences and adding green hydrogen energy to the integrated national system of energy.

The meeting, also attended by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, reviewed the developments of Egypt’s cooperation with experienced international bodies in the field of generating green hydrogen using renewable energy.

In January, Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity signed an agreement with Germany’s Siemens to start studies for establishing a pilot project for producing green hydrogen in Egypt.

The ministry said it would update Egypt’s Energy Strategy 2035 to include green hydrogen.

Two months later, the ministry signed with the Belgian DEME Group a cooperation deal to conduct studies on the production of green hydrogen in the country.

The president’s remarks come two days after the government announced signing an MoU with the Italian Eni in producing green and blue hydrogen and evaluating the technical feasibility of its planned production projects in Egypt.

Shaker in June revealed Egypt’s plans to invest up to $4 billion in a project to generate green hydrogen through electrolysis, noting that the project is still subject to a feasibility study, Arab News reported.

El-Sisi’s meeting with Shaker and Madbouly reviewed the ministry’s projects in the field of renewable energy and power linkage with neighbouring countries, the statement added.

It also addressed electricity projects in the New Administrative Capital, including the main control centre in the national electricity grid.

Shaker reviewed the development of a power linkage project with Saudi Arabia through extending electricity lines and establishing a number of electricity switching stations between the two sides.

This aims to exchange electric energy between the national electric grids of Egypt and Saudi Arabia to achieve mutual economic benefits.

The president also reviewed national electricity projects, especially those relying on wind and solar energy that are implemented in cooperation with private sector companies and in partnership with foreign experiences.

This comes within the framework of Egypt’s integrated and sustainable energy strategy, which aims to raise the country’s electricity generation capacity from renewable sources to 42 percent by 2035.

Egypt has taken big steps to increase the total energy produced from renewables, including the establishment of the world’s largest solar park of Benban in Upper Egypt’s Aswan.

Egypt has advanced from 26th place in 2020 to the 20th among the world’s top 40 markets in the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) for 2021, which was released last month.

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