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Green hydrogen in Jordan: how Aqaba is becoming the hub for green ammonia PPP projects
Where Jordan’s green hydrogen and ammonia projects stand, why Aqaba anchors them, and how organizations can join them as PPP partners.
Green hydrogen in Jordan is being built around Aqaba, where the government wants a regional hub that produces and exports green ammonia made from desert sun, wind and desalinated seawater. Jordan signed its first green ammonia investment agreement in May 2026, for a plant of about $1 billion at the Port of Aqaba, and the shared water, storage and export assets around it are open to PPP partners.
What is green hydrogen, and why does Jordan want it?
Green hydrogen is made by splitting water with renewable electricity, and most of it is shipped as green ammonia. Jordan has strong sun and wind, open desert land and a Red Sea port in Aqaba, which lets the country turn its sunlight into a fuel the world can store, buy and ship.
The fuels and fertilizers of the twentieth century were made from natural gas and shipped from a handful of producers. The next fifty years will make them from sunlight, wind and seawater, in the places where those are cheapest. Jordan imports all the ammonia its fertilizer industry uses, made from natural gas, so a green supply at home can serve export buyers and domestic plants under long contracts.
Why are Jordan’s green hydrogen projects in Aqaba?
Aqaba combines a port, industrial land and strong sun, the conditions that green hydrogen and ammonia projects need. Jordan’s July 2025 green hydrogen framework sets aside an industrial zone in Aqaba for hydrogen plants and desalination, and the port in Aqaba already handles the country’s ammonia trade.
The pieces sit within a few kilometers of each other. The new bulk liquids terminal in Aqaba will handle liquid ammonia from the hydrogen plants, and the desalination project serves both water and green hydrogen, because Aqaba’s hydrogen sites are planned on desalinated seawater. That concentration makes green hydrogen one of the largest pieces of Jordan’s pipeline, with most of it inside Aqaba’s share.
$46B
of Jordan’s $86 billion of PPP and infrastructure projects anchored in Aqaba, where most of the green hydrogen pipeline sits
The Aqaba guidePDF and the opportunity page show how terminals, rail, water, power and green hydrogen depend on each other in the city, and how organizations based there can shape projects that serve several of them at once.
Which green hydrogen projects are planned in Jordan and Aqaba?
The Jordan PPP project register lists five green hydrogen and ammonia projects in Jordan, three of them in Aqaba, with most of their value inside Aqaba’s share of the pipeline. They range from an awarded US$1 billion plant at the Port of Aqaba to the US$6.5 billion H2 Global Energy plant, the largest of the five.
- 01Jordan Green Ammonia. Awarded, at the Port of Aqaba. A US$1 billion plant by Hynfra and Fidelity Group that will make about 100,000 tonnes of green ammonia a year from about 550 MWp of off-grid solar and battery storage, with financial close targeted in 2027.
- 02H2 Global Energy Aqaba Green Ammonia. Pipeline, in Aqaba. About US$6.5 billion for 1 million tonnes of green ammonia a year from up to 5 GW of wind and solar and 1.5 GW of electrolysers, with operation targeted for 2030.
- 03Green Ammonia Plant (United Energy Group). Pipeline, in Jordan. A project by China’s United Energy Group for green ammonia for export, using off-grid solar and desalinated seawater, whose land-use agreement Cabinet approved on June 17, 2026.
- 04Masdar Green Hydrogen. Pipeline, in Jordan. Agreements signed at COP28 in December 2023 for 1 GW of wind with battery storage and a study of a green hydrogen plant near the Port of Aqaba.
- 05Green Hydrogen Common Use Infrastructure. Pipeline, in Aqaba. Shared desalination, ammonia storage and export facilities for every developer in the hub, with a business model study completed with the EBRD in 2025.
Each project, with its location, stage and value, appears in the Green Hydrogen Sector Guide, one of the 23 sector guides on the site.
What targets has Jordan set for green hydrogen?
Jordan’s 2025 to 2035 energy strategy targets the start of commercial green hydrogen production by 2030, with output rising through 2035. The draft green hydrogen strategy of October 2023 saw about 591,000 tonnes a year by 2030 and 3.4 million tonnes by 2050, with Aqaba as the export gateway.
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memoranda of understanding signed with green hydrogen developers in Jordan, six of which had reached land-use agreements by July 2025
The pipeline is moving from paper to contracts. In July 2025 the Cabinet approved a framework that takes investors from memoranda of understanding and feasibility studies to land-use and investment agreements. The first investment agreement followed in May 2026, and a land lease with ASEZA for the Jordan Green Ammonia plant was signed in June.
How can a company join a green hydrogen PPP in Jordan?
A company can join green hydrogen in Jordan through six routes: the developer pathway, shared infrastructure in Aqaba, direct proposals under Article 15 of PPP Law No. 19 of 2023, small-scale PPPs, supply and construction, and offtake and finance, each suited to a different kind of organization and budget.
Developers enter through a memorandum with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, then feasibility studies, a land-use agreement and an investment agreement under the Cabinet framework. Jordan’s first green ammonia plant has an investment agreement, and the shared power, water, storage and export assets in Aqaba are still being planned, so a company can develop them as PPPs that serve every producer in the zone.
Direct proposals suit the parts of the hub that no single developer will build alone: a shared ammonia tank or loading line at the bulk liquids terminal, a desalination unit sized for several hydrogen plants, a refuelling station for port trucks and buses, or green ammonia supplied under contract to Jordan’s fertilizer plants in place of imported ammonia. The unsolicited proposals page explains how a company keeps the right to match the best offer if its project goes to tender.
Regulation No. 9 of 2024 covers PPPs below about US$14.1 million, which suits pilot plants, fuelling stations and training centers, and several can be bundled into one feasibility report and one tender. The sector guide describes a research lab in Aqaba, set up with ASEZA and a university, that would test electrolysers on desalinated seawater, desert heat and dust, starting with three $100,000 pilots. The small PPPs page sets out that route.
How do AI, robotics and tokenization change green hydrogen in Aqaba?
Electrolysers in Aqaba will run on dedicated solar and wind with no grid behind them, so AI decides how much a plant earns, robots make desert plants affordable to build and run, and tokenization lets savers in Jordan, the diaspora and funds abroad own part of the hub and receive their share of each cargo.
Models forecast every hour of sun and wind, size solar fields, batteries and ammonia tanks, and schedule cargoes against ship arrivals. Robots clean panels at night without water, and drones and crawlers check ammonia pipes and tanks for leaks, so a small Jordanian team can run a large plant safely in heat and dust. A green ammonia plant sells its product under long contracts, the cash flow that tokenization suits, and every certified tonne can be issued, traded and retired on a shared registry. Together these three forces point towards the infrastructure singularity, and the tokenization page explains how ownership opens up.
Jordan has the projects, strong sun, a port in Aqaba, a green hydrogen framework and a law that lets a company propose its own projects.
Where should an organization in Jordan start with green hydrogen?
Any green hydrogen or ammonia company in Jordan can start with six steps: a board mandate, a named program lead, a map of the $86 billion pipeline, priced offers for consortiums, partners such as offtakers and lenders, and a first pilot in Aqaba taken from idea to submission as a small-scale PPP or direct proposal.
The Green Hydrogen and Ammonia Companies guidePDF sets out that program in full, with a PPP team, production in stages, shared storage and export at the port, and forecasting and drone inspection deployed as standard on every plant. Energy developers, special economic zones and maritime companies each have a guide of their own in the economic sectors category, and the starting guide explains how PPPs work in Jordan from zero.
