Saudi Arabia Invests in Hydrogen Energy to Promote Low-carbon Fuel Production

Saudi Arabia is planning to spend billions of dollars to develop hydrogen energy and may set up a new company to promote the production of this low-carbon fuel.

It is reported that the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) has set up a new company called "Energy Solutions". People familiar with the matter said that PIF expects the company to invest at least $10 billion in the production of green hydrogen energy, and this figure may increase significantly in the next few years.

"Energy Solutions" will focus on the production of green hydrogen energy, using Saudi Arabia's abundant natural gas resources and renewable energy to build a complete hydrogen energy infrastructure. This includes facilities for the production, storage and transportation of hydrogen to support the development of downstream industries.

In the past few years, Saudi Arabia has not only attached importance to the development of hydrogen energy in policy and strategy, but also made a lot of efforts in actual investment and infrastructure construction in order to achieve energy diversification and economic transformation through the hydrogen energy industry. Previously, Saudi Arabia planned to invest about 1 trillion Saudi riyals (about 1.89 trillion yuan) in the production of clean energy to ensure the competitiveness of hydrogen production.

In addition, Saudi Arabia also plans to cooperate with state-owned oil producer Saudi Aramco to jointly promote related investment projects. Saudi Aramco also planned to use its eastern Jafurah gas field to produce blue hydrogen on a large scale, and it is expected that large-scale exports will not be achieved until after 2030. Blue hydrogen is produced by reforming natural gas and capturing carbon dioxide, and is a low-carbon hydrogen.

Saudi Arabia aims to become the world's largest hydrogen producer and exporter by 2030, with an annual hydrogen production of 4 million tons. To achieve this goal, Saudi Arabia is building several large hydrogen energy projects, including a large green hydrogen manufacturing plant in the new future city on the Red Sea, which is expected to produce more than 600 tons of green hydrogen per day. In addition, Saudi Arabia has invested $5 billion in a 120-electrolyzer project in NEOM, which is expected to produce 650 tons of hydrogen per day by 2026.