UAE to play leading role in hydrogen production, says Masdar executive

The UAE’s abundant solar energy resources will enable the country to maintain a leadership role in hydrogen production, a senior Masdar executive told Investment Monitor. 

“Abu Dhabi and the UAE [more generally] have been leading players in renewable clean energy and will now be in alternative fuel and hydrogen,” Mohammad Abdelqader El Ramahi, Director, Asset Management and Technical Services, Masdar, told the publication in an interview. “Because of the solar abundance and the high radiation of solar here in the Middle East, green hydrogen will be produced at the lowest cost possible internationally. That is why the chance for us to play a primary role in hydrogen generally, and green hydrogen particularly, is very high.”

In January, Masdar signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa Group, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Siemens Energy, and Marubeni Corporation to support the development of Abu Dhabi’s green hydrogen economy. The initiative aims to establish a demonstrator plant at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s flagship sustainable urban development community, to explore the development of green hydrogen, sustainable fuels and e-kerosene production for transport, shipping, and aviation.

“Because of the solar abundance and the high radiation of solar here in the Middle East, green hydrogen will be produced at the lowest cost possible internationally. That is why the chance for us to play a primary role in hydrogen generally, and green hydrogen particularly, is very high,” El Ramahi told Investment Monitor. 

The UAE has formed a ‘hydrogen alliance’ between national oil company ADNOC, Mubadala Investment Company, owner of Masdar, and ADQ. Badr Al-Olama, executive director of UAE clusters at Mubadala, said at an online event in March that green hydrogen production could reach 530 million tonnes by 2050, displacing 10.5 billion barrels of oil. 

Masdar’s investments abroad are informing domestic clean energy development in the UAE, El Ramahi also said during the interview with Investment Monitor. He cited Masdar’s co-investment in the Batwind project in Scotland, the world’s first offshore wind farm with battery storage, which is helping Masdar to develop utility-scale storage solutions. 

Masdar also plans to develop domestic wind farms using the latest class three turbines that are able to harness electricity, even from low wind speeds, Investment Monitor said.