The promise of green hydrogen has captured global attention, and for good reasons. As the world searches for sustainable, scalable solutions to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors, hydrogen produced from renewable energy stands out as a potential game-changer. Yet the journey from potential to reality is rarely straightforward.
Infinity Power, BP and Masdar, are developing a multi-phase green hydrogen project designed to help position the region as a key player in clean fuel production. However, cheaper competition abroad has blunted expected sales last year.
Early in the project’s development, expectations were high that Egypt’s green hydrogen would be exported to major markets in Europe and Asia. That said, global market conditions have shifted. Oversupply in some regions and increased government incentives elsewhere, particularly in the United States due to the Inflation Reduction Act, have reshaped the economics of international trade in hydrogen. Production costs remain high relative to fossil-based alternatives, and infrastructure—from storage to transport—requires substantial investment. Moreover, competition from China and other Asian economies, where production costs are lower, has intensified. At the same time, policy frameworks in regions such as Europe and North America are evolving rapidly, with incentives and subsidies creating uneven playing fields for international producers.
These challenges have led many developers, including Infinity Power, to pivot their strategies, not to scale down ambitions, but to align them with long-term sustainability and local value creation. Through anchoring the first phases of Egypt’s hydrogen development in domestic consumption, Infinity Power is helping ensure that the sector grows in a way that’s both economically viable and socially impactful.
The project has attracted significant attention for its potential and scale. However, as Infinity Power’s Chairman Mohamed Ismail Mansour recently told Bloomberg, the challenge is no longer just about building capacity, it’s about building demand.
“We’re struggling to find offtake for our project and so looking at local demand,” Mansour explained. “We need to cater to the local demand until we find a competitive advantage somehow for the country to be able to compete on the international level.”
Infinity Power and its partners see this as an opportunity to build a resilient domestic hydrogen market. Egypt already has a strong foundation in fertilizer production, chemicals, and aviation sectors that could benefit immediately from locally produced green hydrogen.
In particular, fertilizer manufacturers are natural early adopters. Ammonia, a core ingredient in fertilizers, can be produced using green hydrogen instead of natural gas, helping to reduce carbon intensity while maintaining output. Similarly, airlines and fuel producers exploring sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) could become key customers, adopting cleaner and cheaper alternatives to fuel, as Egypt’s transport and logistics sectors expand. As Mansour noted, focusing first on domestic needs enables the project to prove viability, attract further investment, and set the stage for export readiness once the global market stabilizes.
Despite the competitive pressures, Egypt remains one of the most promising locations globally for green hydrogen. The country boasts abundant solar and wind resources, excellent port infrastructure on both the Mediterranean and Red Sea, and proximity to major European and African markets. Its existing industrial base, particularly in heavy industry and energy, Infinity Power provides a strong foundation for early hydrogen adoption. The government has also outlined an ambitious national hydrogen strategy, emphasizing both foreign investment and local capacity building. The outcome of such an approach will be more than a single project. It will be a blueprint for how emerging economies can lead the green hydrogen transition, leveraging renewable resources, regional partnerships, and domestic innovation to create value at home and resilience abroad.