Mansoor Abulhoul, the UAE's ambassador to the UK, has hailed Britain's latest announcements to boost investment in the fledgling green energy sector.
On Thursday, Downing Street said it would attempt to meet its climate targets by increasing the production of nuclear power, hydrogen and carbon capture.
The diplomat took to Twitter to say the development was "excellent news" for Adonc and Masdar, two companies that have invested heavily in the low-carbon sector in Britain in recent years.
In a BP statement, it was revealed that H2Teesside and HyGreen Teesside have been provisionally earmarked for substantial support under the new the UK's new green strategy, which seeks to boost Britain's economic growth and energy independence.
Both companies, which are based in the north-east of England, have received substantial financial backing from the UAE.
Adnoc – the UAE’s largest energy company – has already taken a 25 per cent stake in the design stage of BP blue hydrogen project, H2Teesside. This was the company's first investment in the UK.
The project aims to be one of the UK’s largest blue hydrogen production plants, targeting 1.2GW of hydrogen production by 2030, more than 10 per cent of the UK government’s hydrogen target for 2030.
H2Teesside has been selected among Track-1 Capture Projects to proceed to negotiations for government funding support with the Department of Energy.
Masdar – the Abu Dhabi renewable energy company – has also previously signed a deal to acquire a stake in BP-proposed green hydrogen project HyGreen Teesside.
That development aims to produce 60MWe (megawatt electrical input) of hydrogen at start-up in 2025, increasing to up to 500MWe by 2030.
The HyGreen Teesside project has been selected to progress to the next stage of the Department of Energy's Hydrogen Business Model and Net Zero Hydrogen Fund programmes, which aim to kickstart the low carbon hydrogen economy across the UK and promote commercial usage.
Together, it is believed these projects could deliver 15 per cent of the UK government’s recently expanded 10GW target for hydrogen production in 2030.
