Independent reference
UAE hydrogen: the target, the pipeline, and what is actually running
The Emirates has the Gulf's most quantified hydrogen strategy, the region's only certified export cargo, and far less operating plant than its targets imply. All three are true at once. This site sets the published targets beside the assets that exist, and gives every figure a primary source you can open.
Last verified:
At a glance
- Production target for 2031
- 1.4Mt/yr
- National Hydrogen Strategy
- Electrolysis the model assumes
- 8.7GW
- A model input, not an announced target
- Largest electrolyser operating
- 1.25MW
- DEWA, running since 2021
- Projects in the tracker
- 16
- 4 operating · 3 cancelled or shelved
The headline finding
The distance between the model and the metal
The strategy's own annex models what the 2031 domestic green target would require. The country's operating electrolysis is four orders of magnitude smaller. Both numbers are official; they are rarely printed together.
Required by 2031 (strategy model)
8.7GW
In-country electrolysis needed to deliver 0.5 Mt/yr of domestic green hydrogen, powered by 15.3 GW of solar PV. This is a model input, not an announced target.
Largest electrolyser operating today
1.25MW
DEWA's plant at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the only fully disclosed operating electrolyser in the country. It has produced more than 100 tonnes since May 2021.
The two figures differ by four orders of magnitude, which no single-scale chart can render legibly. Both are printed here instead.
Source: Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure · ise.fraunhofer.de · 1 July 2023 · Retrieved 26 August 2026
Source: DEWA / Dubai Media Office · mediaoffice.ae · 26 August 2025 · Retrieved 26 August 2026
The other half of the record
What the Emirates has delivered
The distance above is half the record. A page that reports the shortfall and not the delivery is inaccurate by omission, whatever each individual figure says. Here is the other side, from the same kind of sources.
The UAE is the only Gulf country to have delivered certified product. ADNOC shipped the first certified bulk commercial cargo of low-carbon ammonia enabled by carbon capture to Mitsui in Japan on 15 May 2024. Saudi Arabia's 2020 cargo was 40 tonnes, a demonstration, explicitly uncertified. Qatar has shipped nothing.
Source: Offshore Energy · offshore-energy.biz · Retrieved 26 August 2026
The Emirates is the only Gulf state with a published, quantified national hydrogen strategy: dated targets and modelled infrastructure requirements, issued by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure in July 2023. Saudi Arabia publishes no national hydrogen target, and the IEA's country page records no Saudi hydrogen policy.
Source: IEA · iea.org · Retrieved 26 August 2026
Al Reyadah has captured 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year since 2016, and ADNOC describes it as the world's first commercial CCUS facility built for the steel industry. Three million tonnes a year more are under construction at Habshan and Hail & Ghasha.
Source: ADNOC · adnoc.ae · Retrieved 26 August 2026
And the shortfall is not an Emirati one. The IEA records the first-ever decline in announced 2030 low-emissions hydrogen potential, from 49 to 37 Mt/yr, with electrolysis projects responsible for more than 80% of the drop. Global installed electrolysis stood at 2 GW in 2024.
Source: IEA Global Hydrogen Review 2025 · iea.org · Retrieved 26 August 2026
Targets
What the UAE has committed to
Three production figures carry the strategy. The 2031 number is a target; the 2050 number is described in the source document as a forecast.
As of 2031
1.4Mt/yr
The strategy targets 1.4 million tonnes per annum of low-carbon hydrogen by 2031, described by the UAE Government as 1.0 Mt/yr green and 0.4 Mt/yr blue.
As of 2040
7.5Mt/yr
The UAE Government states a 2040 production target of 7.5 Mt/yr.
As of 2050
15Mt/yr
The UAE Government states 15 Mt/yr by 2050. The underlying strategy document gives 14.9 Mt/yr and describes it as a forecast including low export potential, not a target.
Source: UAE Government portal, National Hydrogen Strategy — retrieved 26 August 2026. Read more
Pipeline
Where the UAE pipeline stands
Every hydrogen, ammonia and CCUS project we could source in the Emirates, counted by the status its own sponsor supports.
UAE projects by status (16)
Counted by project, not by capacity, because announced capacity mixes solar megawatts with electrolyser megawatts.
- Operational4projects
- Under construction3projects
- Announced or pre-FID6projects
- Cancelled or shelved3projects
Data table
| Status | Projects |
|---|---|
| Operational | 4 |
| Under construction | 3 |
| Announced or pre-FID | 6 |
| Cancelled or shelved | 3 |
Method: Counted by gh2.ae over the project tracker; each project carries its own source there.
- CancelledProject Crystal (Ruwais electrolyser)
Announced at up to 200 MW in 2022; retendered at 100 MW in 2023
- CancelledMasdar-EMSTEEL 100 MW green hydrogen scale-up
Up to 100 MW
- ShelvedHelios Industry green ammonia
200,000 t/yr green ammonia; 40,000 t/yr green hydrogen; 800 MW solar (100 MW phase 1). Electrolyser rating never disclosed.
Geography
Where the sites are
Where the sites are
Every hydrogen, ammonia and CCUS site in the Emirates that a source places. The cluster at Ruwais holds one plant under construction, one deferred and one cancelled —
- Operational
- Under construction
- Announced / pre-FID
- Cancelled / shelved
- Offshore development
A marker is a site, not a project. Its shape takes the site's most advanced project status, and the number is how many projects share it. Marker positions are the published coordinates of the site or town each project names, checked at build time against Natural Earth coastlines: a marker on land is on land. Offshore developments are marked as such. Which site a project occupies is sourced in the project tracker; the coordinate is this site's own geographic annotation, for orientation and not a surveyed plant position.
Source: Natural Earth · naturalearthdata.com
Tools
Techno-economic modelling
Listing
GaugeH₂
Built by the editor of this site · gh2.ai
Techno-economic modelling for hydrogen projects: levelised cost of hydrogen, subsidy and incentive modelling, and sensitivity and scenario analysis, kept in one model rather than a spreadsheet rebuilt for each case.
- Levelised cost of hydrogen
- Subsidy and incentive modelling
- Sensitivity and scenario analysis
A listing, not an editorial finding like the rest of this page. No payment was taken for it, and no figure published here is produced by this tool.
The record
What changed in 2025 and 2026
Documented changes to UAE projects and programmes during 2025 and 2026, each with its source.
Masdar cancelled its 100 MW green hydrogen project with EMSTEEL on 1 August 2026, after asking bidders to extend proposal validity. No reason was given.
Source: MEED · guest.meed.com · Retrieved 26 August 2026
Masdar redirected the power from a $6bn Abu Dhabi solar project away from green ammonia and towards AI data centres in August 2025.
Source: AGBI · agbi.com · Retrieved 26 August 2026
Of roughly 80 green hydrogen projects across the Middle East, three have secured an offtake agreement.
Source: Mitsui MGSSI · mitsui.com · Retrieved 26 August 2026
“Today, green hydrogen is under pressure and the market is shrinking. A lot of people who went into this venture are out. We are not.”
— Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO, Masdar
Source: AGBI · agbi.com · 21 August 2025 · Retrieved 26 August 2026
Refreshed automatically
Live context
A small set of indicators pulled directly from open-licensed APIs, refreshed on a schedule. Everything else on this site is a dated snapshot with a link to the original.
Mt CO₂
200.6
As of 2024 · World Bank · CC BY 4.0
kWh per person
15,285
As of 2023 · World Bank · CC BY 4.0
USD
552,324,919,096
As of 2024 · World Bank · CC BY 4.0
AED per USD
3.6725
As of 2026-09-03 · Frankfurter · Open, no quota
Sections
Start here
Strategy
What the strategy says, what it does not say, and the three headline numbers that are routinely misquoted.
Projects
Every UAE project with its sponsor-supported status. 4 operating, 3 under construction, 3 cancelled or shelved.
Regulation
Federal Decree-Law 11 of 2024, the free zone tax regime as the law writes it, and the EU rules that govern any export.
Economics
Awarded solar tariffs against real levelised costs, electrolyser capex, and the physics that a lot of sector material gets wrong.
Gulf comparison
Where the Emirates sits against Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt and Qatar — including where it is behind.
Sources & method
463 sourced entries across 104 source domains.
Last verified: 26 August 2026 · 463 sourced entries across 104 source domains. See all sources and method