Emirati renewable energy developer Masdar is seeking opportunities to invest in large-scale green hydrogen projects in North America as part of its international expansion.

The state-owned developer is focused on joining existing projects as it looks to expand its green hydrogen portfolio at pace. It aims to become a leading supplier, with 1mt/yr of production by 2030, half of which will be in the form of international projects and half located in the UAE.

“We have a dedicated team now focusing on developing projects in the US market and in Canada, which is a very attractive market as well,” said Andreas Bieringer, director, green hydrogen business development and commercial. “We are looking for partners where we can join projects at an already advanced stage and support them. But nothing has been finalised yet,” he told Hydrogen Economist in an interview.

Masdar wants to partner with projects based on “mature technology”, with first phase capacity in the region of 100MW and the ability to advance to gigawatt scale, he said.

“We are looking for partners where we can join projects at an already advanced stage” Bieringer, Masdar

In the longer term, Masdar’s recently created green hydrogen business unit aims to develop projects from scratch. The green hydrogen unit’s largest shareholder is UAE oil company Adnoc, together with state-backed energy company TAQA and sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.

“Ultimately, Masdar is a developer, so we want to develop projects, but we have also been strong as partners. There is nothing you can do alone, so that is why we always look for partnerships. That is a global model, not only for the US but also for Europe and other geographies,” said Bieringer.

During the recent COP28 climate talks in Dubai, Masdar signed a non-binding heads of terms development agreement with Austria-based OMV—partly owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and a major stakeholder in the emirate’s oil and petrochemicals industry—to consider developing a green hydrogen plant to help abate emissions from the European firm’s refineries.

In a second deal struck during COP28, it signed an agreement with Austrian energy firm Verbund to study the feasibility of developing a major facility in the Castilla-La Mancha region of central Spain for the purposes of decarbonising hard-to-abate industries there and in Central Europe.

In the UK, Masdar has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire a stake in BP’s proposed green hydrogen project, HyGreen Teesside. It also has projects in Egypt and Morocco.

“Masdar has been in the renewable space since 2006 and has a footprint in 40 countries. We want to leverage this footprint and also spread our wings now equally into a green hydrogen, so that is why we look for partners to build projects on a global scale,” said Bieringer.

In Europe, he pointed to Spain, Portugal and Scandinavia as “very interesting” regions for green hydrogen production.

Home market

The UAE’s domestic hydrogen production strategy received a boost late last year with the release of Abu Dhabi’s hydrogen policy. The strategy calls for 1.4mt/yr by 2031, consisting of 1mt of green hydrogen and 0.4 mt of blue. Total annual production rises to 7.5mt by 2040 and 15mt by 2050.

“[The strategy] will unlock a lot of investment in projects where Masdar will play a very strong role,” said Bieringer.

Masdar hopes to announce FID on some international projects within the next 12–18 months, he said. FID on UAE-based projects “may take a bit longer”, given how recently the national hydrogen strategy was published. “But we are also determined to have a flagship project announced in the UAE as well,” said Bieringer.

Steel, planes and ships

The UAE reckons domestic green hydrogen demand will grow to about 200,000t/yr by 2030, with a strong focus on applications in the steelmaking sector. Masdar is working with steelmaker Emirates Steel Arkan to develop a green hydrogen project under an alliance announced at COP28. The second focus for developing domestic demand is sustainable aviation fuel, with the third area being maritime fuels including ammonia, Bieringer said.

Masdar is making progress on securing offtakers. “We have some, some good discussions with offtakers on a global level and for some of the projects we started we have entered term sheet discussions,” Bieringer said.

Masdar aims to export about half of its domestic production, and that is likely to be in the form of ammonia for the foreseeable future. Applications where ammonia can be used directly, avoiding the need for back-cracking to hydrogen, are likely to dominate, Bieringer said. “The back-cracking of ammonia is still a big topic to be resolved,” he said.

“Will [ammonia] be the predominant way to export in the future—I think other factors could come up. Liquid hydrogen is something we are definitely exploring. But of course, it is not at the price point where it should be. Organic hydrogen carriers are something else we are eyeing,” Bieringer said.

He rejected claims by some that the development of the low-carbon hydrogen sector has slowed recently due to rising costs and difficulties in bringing projects to FID.

“The overall direction has not changed, and I would not say that you see a slowdown at all. Some people have recalibrated things a bit and have reprioritised, but that should not give the wrong impression that things have fundamentally changed,” Bieringer said.

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Author: Stuart Penson