The Middle East’s first Solar-driven Hydrogen Electrolysis Facility

TRDJ Consulting he United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced its Net Zero by 2050 strategic initiative, with clean energy being one of the main pillars of addressing the challenge of climate change and reducing GHG emissions. Siemens Energy, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Expo 2020 Dubai have collaborated to establish the region’s first solar-powered green hydrogen plant at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai.

Green hydrogen is expected to play a key role in the energy transition and in the decarbonization of the global economy. Hydrogen technologies will accelerate renewable energy integration and deployment in the region and pave the way for the transition to a sustainable and green economy in the UAE.

The Green Hydrogen Project covers an area of 10,000 square meters at the Outdoor Testing Facility of the DEWA Research and Development Center, which is part of the Solar Park. During the day, the plant harnesses some of the photovoltaic electricity from the MBR Solar Park to produce green hydrogen using a technology called PEM electrolysis. At night, the green hydrogen is converted into electricity to power the city with sustainable energy.

During Expo 2020 Dubai, which took place from October 1, 2021 until March 31, 2022, the facility will test and demonstrate how green hydrogen can be produced on an industrial scale, stored, and deployed for a number of applications. In the spirit of Expo 2020 Dubai’s main theme of “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”, the three project partners DEWA,Expo 2020, and Siemens Energy are working together to promote sustainability and innovation in a strategic partnership between the government and private sectors.

Hydrogen has the potential to electrify the mobility sector further, but also offers the possibility for heavy-industry sectors to switch to the chemicals produced by electrolysis of water with renewable energy.

The first phase of the demonstration program will focus on the production of green hydrogen for passenger cars and buses in the Masdar City area.

The world faces the challenge of maintaining economic growth while reducing and mitigating the effects of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. To avoid a climate catastrophe, we need to achieve “net zero” emissions by 2050 and accelerate the transition to clean energy. Experts and policymakers are increasingly looking to the use of hydrogen as a potential game-changing technology.

Hydrogen generated with renewables could play a key role in accelerating this transition by facilitating longterm storage of renewables and balancing out grid fluctuations caused by non-dispatchable sources. This flexibility, experts believe, will have to double by 2040. At the same time, power-to-gas – the technology of using electricity, especially surplus green power, to produce gas fuel by way of electrolysis – makes it possible to electrify those sectors that are currently still reliant on hydrocarbons and to make that power usable to transport goods and people, for making steel and cement, or as feedstock for the chemical industry.

Establishing such an energetic link between previously separated sectors by way of renewables – also known as “sector coupling” – can reduce primary fossil energy consumption by 50 percent despite growing power demand. Generally, a more diversified fuel supply would also help to improve energy security, and some countries with cheap and abundant renewable power could dedicate that capacity entirely to making green hydrogen for local consumption and export.

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