First building powered by hydrogen - 7th October 2024

A hydrogen-powered building could be a world first in Egypt's New Administrative Capital, near Cairo.

The 43-storey office block, a joint project with Forbes Media and developers Magnom, is likely to come with a price tag of around $1 billion. It's to be 75 percent powered by clean hydrogen and 25 percent powered by solar cells, on the exterior of the building.

Designed by renowned architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, the Forbes International Tower will sit alongside Africa's tallest building, the Iconic Tower. Cairo's new administrative capital is being promoted for its green qualities with land buyers.

The developers propose to go beyond using sources of clean power in their sustainability efforts. Their intention is to construct the tower employing materials with 'low embodied carbon' – materials which have a low climate impact throughout their lifecycle. If located, manufactured and eventually recycled or discarded in the appropriate manner, these materials have the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of the construction by 58 percent. Similarly, there will be water recycling in situ, meaning there’s a reduced risk of water shortages in this desert region.

Combining these various strategies should, according to Magnom, allow it to achieve its net-negative goal for the skyscraper, meaning it will remove more carbon than it creates over its lifecycle. If successful, it would become the world's first skyscraper to do so.

Much will depend on how workable such large-scale use of hydrogen actually is. Although hydrogen is abundant, it's also only considered 'clean' when found and produced using certain methods. Some criticise the project, questioning if hydrogen production can genuinely be super-charged to take the role usually performed by fossil fuels.

Magnom has admitted it needs to fully assess the situation. While a hydrogen-powered, net-negative skyscraper hasn't yet started to take shape, the construction’s scheduled for completion in 2030.