Masdar pulls the plug on flagship green steel project: Abu Dhabi’s clean energy giant has scrapped plans to build a 100 MW green hydrogen electrolyzer for Emsteel, sources told Meed. Masdar notified bidders of the cancellation earlier this month — weeks after asking them to hold offers open through the end of summer for more time to evaluate bids.
The scrapped project would have scaled up an existing pilot: Emsteel’s only hydrogen-fed green steel today still comes from a 2.1-MW pilot plant inaugurated with Masdar in 2024, which remains operational.
The move comes as part of a broader retreat from green hydrogen: Masdar pushed its target of 1 mn tons of green hydrogen a year past 2030 back in October 2024, citing cost and demand headwinds across the industry. Then, last August, CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi said that global demand for green hydrogen lagged far behind expectations, prompting Masdar to redirect 6 GW of solar capacity from a USD 6 bn desert solar buildout — originally earmarked for a 350k-ton green ammonia project — toward AI data centers.
