RIYADH: In a push to stay ahead of the curve in developing future energy, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has signed a deal with the French low-carbon energy provider ENGIE to jointly develop green hydrogen projects and derivatives in the Kingdom for export purposes. This move will see ENGIE working closely with PIF to help the Kingdom in strengthening its international competitiveness in producing and supplying hydrogen and derivatives. The deal also falls in line with the goals outlined in Vision 2030 where Saudi Arabia aims to increase domestic generation capacity from renewable energy to 50 percent by the end of this decade to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060. “We, at ENGIE, are proud to contribute to driving the energy transition in the Kingdom and achieving its aspirations and goals in the green hydrogen sector,” Managing Director at ENGIE Frederic Claux said. “Our partnership with PIF will contribute to laying robust foundations for the green hydrogen industry, enabling the Kingdom to be one of the top exporters of green hydrogen worldwide,” Claux added. Under the MoU, both parties will work on assessing the feasibility of the co-development opportunities that could potentially contribute to enhancing the energy transition in the Kingdom Moreover, as part of the collaboration, both PIF and ENGIE will work to formulate a strategy for the global market in an attempt to secure off-take arrangements. This comes after PIF signed a memorandum of understanding in January with Korea’s Posco and Samsung C&T to develop a new green hydrogen production plant. The MoU’s main objective was to complete project feasibility for an export-oriented green hydrogen project, PIF said in a statement at the time. The cooperation between the three entities was set to take a giant leap in the reduction of carbon emissions, as well as the transfer of knowledge and expertise between the Kingdom and South Korea. Meanwhile, the world’s largest green hydrogen development in the Kingdom’s $500 billion giga-project NEOM formally entered the construction stage earlier this month. In a statement to Tadawul in the first week of July, ACWA Power said that its affiliate NEOM Green Hydrogen Co. issued a full award notice to proceed with the engineering, procurement and construction, which has been approved. In May, NGHC signed financial documents with 23 local, regional and international banks and investment firms to construct a green hydrogen facility at a total investment value of $8.4 billion.