RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and its partners kicked off the construction work at the world’s largest green hydrogen project in NEOM.

The partners announced a $900 million contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of the project, according to a bourse filing by ACWA Power.

Paddy Padmanathan, CEO of ACWA Power, told Arab News in an interview last year that the project will be a game-changer for the Kingdom and the company as it will help ACWA expand into the green hydrogen business once it’s completed.

The CEO of the Saudi-listed company also said in another interview that he expected to close financing for the renewable project in the second half of 2022.

The plant will need around 4.3 GW of clean energy to power it, and ACWA plans to use solar during the day and wind at night to eliminate the need for batteries and expensive storage solutions, he added.

In July 2020, Air Products, together with ACWA Power and NEOM, announced an agreement for a $5 billion world-scale green hydrogen-based ammonia production facility powered by renewable energy.