Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hydrogène de France SA ("HDF Energy") group to develop a hydrogen based storage green power generation plant as an alternative source of electricity in Uganda.

The deal was signed by the minister of Energy Ruth Nankabirwa and Nicholas Lecomte, HDF's Director for Southern and East Africa on the sidelines of the ongoing COP27 meeting in Egypt.

Lecomte said: "The novelty of the power plant is such that political support is paramount to enable a first project, and the reforms to be conducted. Our cooperation with the Ministry on a first project in Uganda aims at, amongst other objectives, working jointly on a practical case to inform the local regulation, as well as creating an enabling environment and skills in Uganda for the green hydrogen industry."

Nankabirwa thanked HDF for the initiative.

"We are open and will work with HDF, the entire region is going to be transformed," Nankabirwa said.

Uganda now joins French Guiana in South America where the world's first utility scale hydrogen to power plant is being constructed.

A renewable power plant operates by combining a photovoltaic plant and mass storage of energy through a hydrogen chain, the green alternative to a classic diesel power plant as it only uses solar energy and water to produce stable electricity thus avoiding greenhouse emissions and noise.

The proposed first non-intermittent renewable energy power plant using hydrogen technology in Uganda is set to provide year-round supply for the equivalent of 24 hours a day and prefigures the future of renewable energies by eliminating their intermittency through hydrogen long term energy storage.