At the Oman Water Week in Muscat, on 10 April, MED-GEM Director Frank Wouters participated in the workshop “Exploring the Nexus: Green Hydrogen and Desalination for Sustainable Water and Energy Solutions”. 

In a well-attended session, Frank spoke about the economics of green hydrogen, now and in the future, and elaborated on the economics of water desalination using renewable energy. Citing a study that compiled cost figures from 26 sources, he said that grey hydrogen best case currently costs approximately $1/kg, carbon capture adds another dollar, so blue hydrogen stands at $2/kg, while best in class green hydrogen can be produced for about $3/kg. It should be noted that the current range for green hydrogen spans from $3 to $10 per kg globally.

Analyzing the learning rates for solar PV and other renewable energy technologies, electrolyzers and water desalination, he explained how deployment enables cost reduction, forcing the costs for grey, blue and green hydrogen to converge in the future.

Rumaitha Al Busaidi from Hydrom delivered a fantastic overview of how Oman orchestrates this new sector by auctioning land and providing common use infrastructure among many other things, with the third land auction to be launched in a few weeks. Other speakers provided a deep dive in electrolyzer and water desalination technologies, as well as social and environmental aspects of the sector.