Ukraine War Calls for Accelerated Sustainability: Demand for Green Hydrogen in MENA Increases

According to the CEO of H2 industries Inc Michael Strusch, in an interview with Al Arabiya, the war in Ukraine has impacted the global economy, from the European Union’s gas crisis to the strict Russian sanctions. These events have led to an increase in the demand for green hydrogen for the company in the Middle East and North Africa.

“Actually, we are talking to most of the countries in the MENA region, even before the [Ukraine] war started so the demand for green hydrogen in there and it accelerated with the war, of course and the prices went up for green hydrogen”, the CEO said.

The company seems to be in negotiations with 30 countries, mostly in the MENA region, since the demand for the production and export of green hydrogen seems to be necessary for the main development of these countries in the next years.

Green hydrogen is on its way to be the energy resource of the future which is why it is important for the different countries around the world to start implementing strategies for shifting towards greener and cleaner sources of energy. Green hydrogen is considered “green” because it does not include emissions going into the atmosphere.

“Internationally, there is no defined standard yet, especially not in EU, this is still under discussion. But it’s actually even more than green because we solve also the problem of cleaning our planet from waste. So this will be decided in the future which color this technology will be, probably we can wall it white.”

The green hydrogen reconversion can help decarbonize certain key sectors such as transportation, shipping, aviation, and manufacturing. Ultimately, it will contribute to reducing emissions and attenuating the impact of climate change.

“Green hydrogen will dominate the market, and in a few decades, we will only be talking about green hydrogen”, stated Michael Strusch.

H2 Industries and Public Establishment for Industrial Estates Madayan signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a $1.4 billion dollars waste-to-hydrogen plant in Oman, along with the construction of a 300-megawatt baseload electric storage. The company has a pre-approved project in the Suez Canal in Egypt as well.

According to the CEO, the first green hydrogen production plants will begin operating in 2024 or 2025, and by 2030 - depending on the pricing of electrolyzers, the cost will be less than $1 per kilogram.

Source : AlArabiya