Italian energy infrastructure company Snam has envisioned Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region to become the next exporters of green hydrogen in seven years, CEO Marco Alvera said in an interview with Al Arabiya.
The company has reportedly sold essential hydrogen-production equipment termed ‘electrolyzers’ to NEOM in Saudi Arabia to create the “world's biggest and first real hydrogen hub in NEOM,” Alvera said.
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“There are a number of agreements in place, and there’s various players working in the hydrogen sector, the Gulf and the region here is a very promising and attractive region for hydrogen,” Alvera added.
The company is reportedly working with Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund Mubadala, UAE’s oil giant ADNOC, Saudi Arabia’s energy leader Aramco and ACWA power. The current stage of partnership and financial incentive was not disclosed in the interview.
The CEO also boasted of pipelines in Italy “going into North Africa, in Greece, in the south of France and Austria, UK and Belgium, in the UAE… and between Israel and Egypt.”
How it works
The company’s primary area of expertise lies in designing and implementing hydrogen pipelines and the required infrastructure to support storage and production, the CEO explained.
The CEO also claimed Snam is one of the first companies to repurpose gas-based infrastructure into one that supports hydrogen.
Bold claims of producing steel, cement, and ceramics using green hydrogen were made in the interview. Even the production of pasta is possible, Alvera said.
He attributed all the possible derivations of hydrogen energy to an essential equipment called the ‘electrolyzer’ which essentially helps convert water and electricity into hydrogen and oxygen which is in-turn used to create ammonia and other synthetic fuels.
For the device’s electricity requirement, Snam hopes to tap into solar, wind and water energy in another step to reduce carbon emissions,.
“Our ambition… is to deliver green hydrogen made from the sun at $25 per megawatt hour in the next seven or eight years,” Alvera said, which would be significantly cheaper than the current gas per megawatt hour prices of over 100 euros in Europe.
With the Russia-Ukraine war driving up prices of oil and gas globally, Snam is confident of tapping into hydrogen as an affordable alternative to more traditional sources of energy.
European countries have been seeking to reduce their use of brown coal to meet their climate pledges. Natural gas produces less emissions and has often been a relatively inexpensive alternative, AFP reported.
However, gas prices have surged this heating season as Russia reduced its sales on the European spot market, and deliveries under long-term contracts could be impacted by Western sanctions over Ukraine or Russian counter-sanctions.
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