UAEMIDDLE EASTEUROPEASIARENEWABLE ENERGYSUSTAINABILITYENERGYHYDROGEN
Orchestrating a clean energy boom takes extreme focus. That is the journey the UAE is very successfully creating, with the recent launch of its Hydrogen Strategy and its updated UAE Energy Strategy 2050 marking a leap towards creating the cleaner future envisioned by the nation’s ambitious leaders.
John Roper, CEO Middle East, Uniper Global Commodities
John Roper, CEO Middle East, Uniper Global Commodities
The UAE’s renewable energy capacity has grown more than any other country in the world over the last decade and the nation aims to more than triple this capacity again to reach a total of 14.2 gigawatts (GW) by 2030. Unsurprisingly then, the country now ranks second in the Energy Transition pillar in this year’s Green Future Index, quickly climbing eight positions year-on-year.
This wave of progress is now set to include the UAE’s accelerated evolution into both a producer and a supplier of low carbon hydrogen –at a far faster rate than the vast majority of other countries worldwide. By 2031, the UAE aims to produce 1.4 million tonnes of hydrogen annually. This figure could rise tenfold to 15 million by 2050, which is an astonishing forecast for what is still a relatively young and largely untested market.
Two hydrogen oases will also be established by 2031 and five oases by 2050, with a new research and development hydrogen centre to advance key technologies up and running within eight years. The UAE expects this to grow into an internationally recognised innovation centre for hydrogen by 2050, keeping it ahead of the global curve.
There is no doubt that the UAE is fast emerging as a leader in an upcoming wave of regional potential in a global market which could reach $700 billion by 2050, according to a report by Arthur D Little. The UAE’s bold targets bode very well for countries’ rising appetite and widespread need – in part spurred by the Russia-Ukraine conflict – to import low carbon ydrogen. This includes the European Union’s (EU) plans to import 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen within seven years, according to Europa. Germany, the continent’s biggest economy, needs to import 70 percent of its low carbon hydrogen needs, for example, so connectivity between the two regions is essential to sustaining energy security on the global road to Net Zero.
Rapid domino effect
The bigger energy picture speaks volumes. The updated UAE Energy Strategy 2050 will support the target of achieving a grid emission factor of 0.27 kg CO2/kWh by 2030 – lower than the global average – to achieve Net Zero in the increasingly industrialized country’s energy and water sectors by 2050.
The UAE will also invest up to $55 billion by 2030 to preserve both energy and economic growth and security: a particularly meaningful and rapid investment against a backdrop of global economic strain. Plus, the strategy’s aim to improve individual and institutional energy consumption efficiency rates ill contribute to achieving financial saving of $28 billion and creating 50,000 new green jobs by 2030 – positively uplifting the workforce in a nation of just 10 million people.
The new strategies – both for hydrogen and energy overall – reinforce the country’s ‘We the UAE 2031’ Vision, the Circular Economy Policy 2031, the National Strategy for Wellbeing 2031, and the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative. The timing is especially apt; the UAE’s current Year of Sustainability precedes it hosting COP28 in Dubai this November.
Accelerating green transformation
Keeping pace with market trends, our goal at Uniper is to have 5 percent to 10 percent of our portfolio comprised of green gases by 2030. We are committed to a gradual decarbonisation of our gas business, incorporating green gases such as hydrogen. We’re also repurposing our current gas storage facilities for hydrogen storage. Our green transformation will see Uniper investing over €8 billion through 2030.
We are activly involved in large-scale hydrogen projects in the Middle East, with a view to exporting hydrogen to Europe and Asian markets. As such, we are working with Masdar, one of the region’s biggest renewable energy firm, to build a plant that will run on 1.3GW of solar power – producing hydrogen in a very short three years.
Plus, our newly-signed agreement with Greenko ZeroC in India – another key market to the UAE – include a first-of-its-kind innovative pricing, supply, and tenure structure for 250,000 tonnes of green ammonia. This is key to diversifying the supply of green hydrogen. The first phase is based on an electrolyser powered by Round the Clock (RTC) renewable electricity produced by 2.5GW of renewable assets in India, which results in an impressive annual plant load factor upwards of 85 percent. Again, very attractive reliability for future investors.
Energy security, Net Zero and globalisation are all interlinked, so the art of partnership and connectivity has never been mor important. The UAE has mastered an ability to pin down win-win deals to support energy security and climate goals and we believe this will innovatively and quickly evolve the regional low carbon hydrogen market – a journey we are proud to be a part of.
(The author is CEO Middle East, Uniper Global Commodities. Any opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own)
