Saudi Green Hydrogen Megaproject

Green hydrogen megaproject joint venture NEOM Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) announced today the financial close for its new production facility at a total investment value of $8.4 billion. The project is being financed with $6.1 billion non-recourse financing from a consortium of 23 banks and financial institutions, in one of the largest-ever project financings put in place under the green loan framework.

Launched in 2020, NGHC is an equal joint venture developed by renewable energy company ACWA Power, industrial gases producer Air Products, and Saudi Arabia development project NEOM, aimed at building the world’s largest green hydrogen plant. Slated to begin production in 2026, the plant will integrate up to 4 GW of renewable wind and solar energy to produce as much as 600 tonnes per day of carbon-free hydrogen.

Hydrogen is viewed as one of the key building blocks of the transition to a cleaner energy future, particularly for sectors with difficult to abate emissions, in which renewable energy solutions such as wind or solar are less practical, such as metals manufacturing and heavy transport. Around 90 million metric tons of hydrogen are produced annually, although the vast majority is extracted using fossil fuels, which create pollutants and GHG emissions. The development of clean hydrogen capacity, such as green hydrogen, which uses renewable energy to power the process to extract hydrogen from other materials, will require massive investments in areas including infrastructure, electrolysis, and transport.