Commissioning begins at Saudi Arabia’s 2.2 GW green hydrogen plant

At a vast renewable-energy project in Saudi Arabia, the machinery has begun its handover from builders to operators. Neom Green Hydrogen Company has started commissioning its 2.2 GW green hydrogen and ammonia plant, a joint venture between Acwa, Air Products and Neom. The company expects product availability in 2027.

The plant is being built around 4 GW of solar and wind power generation sites, which the company said were due to be completed by mid-2026. Once running, the wind- and solar-powered facility will produce up to 600 tonnes per day of green hydrogen. Sungrow has said it will supply inverter technology for the project, including its 1+X modular inverter solution. In March, Neom Green Hydrogen Company said construction was 90% complete across all sites.

The commissioning step tests whether renewable electricity, electrolysers and hydrogen production can work together as one industrial system. The sources do not yet report product output or an independent performance test, so the 600-tonne figure remains the project’s stated production capacity rather than a result demonstrated in operation.

The wider picture is moving in both directions. At the Port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium, Power to Hydrogen has delivered and begun installing a 500 kW anion exchange membrane electrolyzer. The company says its system can respond to changes in renewable power in under 50 milliseconds, and that its materials pathway could cut capital costs by up to 65% versus comparable PEM electrolyzers. Those claims come from the developer, and the public launch is planned for September.

So what changes in practice? Neom shows that green hydrogen is reaching the commissioning phase at multi-gigawatt scale, while Antwerp is preparing to demonstrate another electrolyzer technology in a high-throughput industrial port under real operating conditions. India’s Hystar-BHEL agreement adds a manufacturing route for PEM electrolyzers, and Italy’s support scheme sets an annual spending limit of €400 million for projects selected through competitive procedures between 2026 and 2029. But the canceled 2.1 GW HyScale 100 project in Germany is a reminder that large capacity announcements still need durable project conditions before they become working plants.