Cairo, Egypt's capital city
Egypt turns to green desalination
Cairo hopes renewables-based water purification could both narrow the domestic deficit and enable it to realise its green hydrogen ambitions
Egypt is preparing to tender for the construction of a network of desalination plants powered by renewables to address an acute shortage of fresh water and provide feedstock for green hydrogen production. The county’s sovereign wealth fund is seeking partners to invest about $2.5bn to build, own and operate 17 desalination facilities powered by solar and other renewable resources with a combined capacity of 2.8mn m³/d by 2025. Egypt is taking advice and technical support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, with the first tenders—for some 1mn m³/d—due in early 2022. $2.5bn – Projected cost of desalination net
Also in this section
9 March 2026
Hydrogen has not stalled in the UK because the technology does not work. The problem is that the system around it does not yet move at the speed required
4 March 2026
Turmoil in Middle East reminds nascent clean hydrogen sector that its future prospects are dependent on global energy markets and geopolitics
25 February 2026
Low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia development is advancing much more slowly and unevenly than once expected, with high costs and policy uncertainty thinning investment. Meanwhile, surging energy demand is reinforcing the role of natural gas and LNG as the backbone of the global energy system, panellists at LNG2026 said
18 February 2026
Norwegian energy company has dropped a major hydrogen project and paused its CCS expansion plans as demand fails to materialise
