Egypt’s Sisi and Belgian companies discuss green hydrogen

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has attended a meeting with chief executives of several Belgian companies, including Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering NV ((DEME) is an international group of specialised companies in the field of capital and maintenance dredging), and the Port of Antwerp.

The President said that his country is committed to contributing to the fight against global warming and wants more FDI in the country renewable energy sector.

Other key Egyptian government officials also attended the meeting including Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla and Navy Commander Lt. Gen Ahmed Khaled. The Belgium Ambassador to Egyp, Francois Cornet, was also present in the meeting.

The high-level meeting explored the potential cooperation between the Egyptian government and the Belgian companies to invest in green hydrogen production, the presidential spokesman said.

The Belgian companies highlighted the growing importance of green hydrogen on the EU agenda as a tool to combat carbon emission. They took a keen interest in Egypt’s solar and wind resources, necessary for producing green hydrogen. The cooperation will also likely create renewed business opportunities for Egyptian ports and to provide access to the European energy market.

Egypt now joins other African countries such as Morocco, exploring green hydrogen in partnership with the EU countries.

H2 Bulletin understands that Egypt aims to develop its clean energy industry and increase green energy in the electric energy mix. This would diversify the country energy generation sources and utilise its wealth of natural resources (wind and solar). A ministerial committee is also studying to integrate hydrogen into its Energy Strategy 2035 and exploring its application and generations to add it as an energy source.

In January 2021, Egypt signed a Memorandum of Intent with Joe Kaiser, the CEO of Germany’s Siemens, to study the feasibly of a pilot green hydrogen production plant in Egypt.