KfW IPEX-Bank: Financing for the world’s largest green hydrogen project

• Technology of the future for the energy supply of the future
• Electrolysers from ThyssenKrupp Nucera in Germany

The world's largest green hydrogen production plant is currently being built at Oxagon, in Saudi Arabia’s region of Neom by NEOM Green Hydrogen Company. The plant will produce green ammonia on an industrial scale with an unprecedented annual output of 1.2 million tonnes with its own dedicated wind and solar farms after its planned completion in 2026.

Around USD 6.1 billion of the total investment volume of over USD 8.4 billion is being provided as debt capital by a large consortium of 23 international and regional banks and Saudi sovereign funds. KfW IPEX-Bank is contributing USD 325 million. Its share is largely being used to finance the electrolysers supplied by ThyssenKrupp Nucera from Germany; this part is covered by the German export credit agency Euler Hermes. In the overall financing, KfW IPEX-Bank is acting as the Euler Hermes coordinator and agent.

The borrower NEOM Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) is an equal joint venture by ACWA Power, Air Products and NEOM.

The electrolysers from the renowned German manufacturer ThyssenKrupp Nucera are a key component of the project. The individual units are already the largest electrolysers ever built, each with a capacity of 20MW. The total output of the more than 2,000MW plant is achieved by interconnecting more than 100 such units.

“The reliable production of large quantities of green hydrogen plays a key role in global decarbonisation and the transformation to climate neutrality,” said Dr Velibor Marjanovic, Member of the Management Board of KfW IPEX-Bank. “We are pleased to be able to contribute to this genuinely flagship project with our financing of cutting-edge German technology, underpinning our aspiration to drive forward global projects in the energy transition and the export of European technologies.”

The project includes all components of an integrated project for the long-term production of climate-neutral green ammonia in large quantities: from the generation of renewable energies using its own solar and wind farms – the conditions for which are advantageous in the project area – to the construction of power lines and battery storage systems, the production of hydrogen through electrolysis and its conversion into more easily transportable ammonia using the process of ammonia synthesis, to the interim storage and delivery of products for shipping for export to Europe and Asia.