Taking advantage of its pioneering role in renewable energies, Morocco aspires to become a leading player in the green hydrogen market in North Africa, both for export to Europe and for use in fertilizer production.
In late July, King Mohammed VI reaffirmed in a speech his country’s ambition and called on the government for the “rapid and high-quality implementation” of the “Morocco offer” of green hydrogen.
It is necessary to “capitalize on the virtues our country possesses and respond in the best possible way to the projects proposed by global investors in this promising field.”
Hydrogen is obtained through water electrolysis, which separates this gas from oxygen. However, it is only “green” when produced using electricity generated from renewable energies: wind, solar, or hydroelectric.
There are high hopes placed on this resource, which can be used to reduce carbon emissions in industries such as steel, cement, chemicals, or fertilizers, as well as for storing clean energy.
Morocco aims to position itself as a regional leader, even though the sector is “nascent and major global projects will not see the light before three to five years,” says Samir Rachidi, director of the Moroccan research institute Iresen, to AFP.
In mid-August, the Ministry of Economy announced that it had reserved 1.5 million public hectares – nearly twice the size of Puerto Rico – to host “eight green hydrogen and ammonia production plants.”
Moroccan media reported projects from Australian, Indian, German, French, and British investors.
Morocco enters this race with the advantage of having invested heavily in clean energy over the past 15 years, generating 38% of the current electricity and aiming for 52% by 2030.
This industry requires low-cost electricity production. The goal is not to exceed a cost of one to two dollars per kilogram of green hydrogen, explained Ahmed Reda Chami, president of the Economic Council (a public body) to the weekly magazine “La Vie Eco.”
Algeria and Tunisia on the lookout
Rabat also considers green hydrogen crucial to assist in the production of ammonia, the basis of agricultural fertilizers, a sector in which the country stands out globally due to its immense phosphate reserves.
Following strong global demand, which raised the price to over $1,000 per ton since COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, the public monopoly in phosphate management plans to produce one million tons of “green ammonia” by 2027, produced from green hydrogen. The forecast is to triple it by 2032.
The rest of the Maghreb is also positioning itself in this race. According to a recent report from Deloitte, North Africa will be the world’s leading region in green hydrogen exports by 2050.
Algeria “aspires to be a significant player,” leveraging “one of the world’s most significant potentials” in terms of solar and wind energy and in “its transportation infrastructure” such as pipelines, declared Rabah Sellami, director of the Renewable Energy Commissioner, to AFP.
Currently, this oil and gas-producing country generates only 3% of its electricity from renewables, but has invested massively to achieve an installed capacity of 4 gigawatts by 2024.
Its roadmap for green hydrogen development foresees “an annual production of one million tons by 2040, destined for export to the European market” and 250,000 tons for domestic consumption, says Sellami.
As for Tunisia, it will be “able to export between 5.5 and 6 tons of green hydrogen to Europe by 2050,” recently asserted Belhassen Chiboub, director general at the Ministry of Energy.
However, to achieve this, it will need to increase its rate of clean electricity production from the current 3% to the promised 35% by 2030.
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Main Image caption: Aerial view of the enormous Noor 1 photovoltaic power station, located near the Moroccan city of Ouarzazate, on February 4, 2016 (FADEL SENNA)
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SOURCE: yahoo! news
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