Saudi Arabia has reached a major milestone in its ambition to become a global leader in clean energy as the construction now finished on the NEOM Green Hydrogen and Ammonia project, one of the most ambitious green-hydrogen developments ever undertaken.
According to the project’s developer, ACWA Power, construction of the $8.4 billion facility has been completed and the complex has entered the commissioning phase. Commercial operations are targeted for 2027.
Carbon-free hydrogen
Once operational, the facility will produce up to 600 tons per day of carbon-free hydrogen, converted into green ammonia for global export, providing a practical blueprint for green hydrogen at scale.
Located at Oxagon in NEOM, northwestern Saudi Arabia, the project is being developed by a joint venture between ACWA Power, Air Products and NEOM. Once operational, it is expected to become the world’s largest green-hydrogen facility by electrolyzer capacity, representing a significant step forward for large-scale renewable hydrogen production.
Large-scale solar and wind power generation
The project combines large-scale solar and wind generation with electrolyzers that will use renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen will subsequently be converted into green ammonia for transportation and export to international markets.
The facility has an electrolzer capacity of approximately 2.2 GW, supported by around 4 GW of dedicated renewable power generation from solar and wind. At full production, the plant is designed to produce as much as 600 tons of carbon-free hydrogen per day, which will be converted into up to 1.2 million tons of green ammonia annually.
This scale is particularly significant because green hydrogen production remains relatively fragmented worldwide. The NEOM project is designed to demonstrate that renewable hydrogen and its derivatives can be produced commercially at industrial scale rather than only through smaller demonstration facilities.
Construction marks the beginning of commissioning
The completion of construction marks the beginning of another critical stage: commissioning.
NEOM Green Hydrogen Company said its renewable-energy assets, including the wind farm, solar farm and transmission infrastructure, had reached advanced stages of completion earlier this year. The company subsequently moved toward energization and commissioning of the hydrogen-production equipment.
The transition from construction to commissioning is crucial because the project must now demonstrate that its interconnected renewable-energy, electrolysis, hydrogen-processing and ammonia-production systems can operate together reliably.
ACWA Power CEO Samir Serhan revealed that the plan is for commercial operation to begin in 2027, indicating that the project has moved beyond the construction phase and into preparation for actual production.
Hydrogen is difficult and expensive to transport over long distances in its pure form. Converting hydrogen into ammonia provides a more practical way of moving large quantities of renewable energy between continents.
Green ammonia can also be used directly in industries such as fertiliser production and potentially as a low-carbon fuel for shipping and other applications.
For the NEOM project, ammonia is therefore more than simply an end product. It is a means of connecting Saudi Arabia’s abundant renewable-energy resources with international markets.
The project secured a long-term off-take arrangement for its green ammonia, helping provide the commercial foundation required to finance the development. The original financial close in 2023 involved $8.4 billion of total investment and $6.1 billion in non-recourse financing from 23 banks and financial institutions.
The project also reflects a broader shift in Saudi Arabia’s energy strategy. For decades, the Kingdom has been synonymous with oil and gas. Through projects such as NEOM, however, Saudi Arabia is seeking to use its strong solar and wind resources to establish itself as a major producer and exporter of renewable energy and clean fuels.
The country’s geography provides a potentially important advantage. Vast areas of land, high solar irradiation and suitable wind resources can support large renewable-energy installations, while the Kingdom’s existing industrial and export infrastructure could help connect new clean-energy products with global markets.
The NEOM project is consequently being positioned not simply as a hydrogen plant, but as part of Saudi Arabia’s broader economic diversification and industrial strategy.
The project is also expected to contribute to reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions by replacing hydrogen and ammonia produced using fossil fuels.
Earlier project assessments estimated that the facility could avoid as much as 5 million tons of CO₂ emissions annually once fully operational.
The actual climate benefit, however, will ultimately depend on how efficiently the facility operates, the performance of its renewable-energy assets and the carbon intensity of the production and supply chain. These factors will become clearer once the plant begins commercial operations.
