Morocco Aims to Become Major Green Hydrogen Exporter to EU by 2050

As the African champion of renewable energies, Morocco aims to be one of the main exporters of green hydrogen to Europe, writes the newspaper Le Soir. According to its roadmap published in 2021, the kingdom plans to invest more than 8 billion euros by 2030 and up to around 68 billion euros by 2050 to set up the ecosystem. "The competitive advantage (of Morocco, Ed.) with regard to renewable energies, among the most abundant and the least expensive in the world, will culminate with the development of the green hydrogen sector," explained the head of the Moroccan government, Aziz Akhannouch, at the Davos Forum in Switzerland on January 18.

At the end of 2021, Morocco had around 4,050 megawatts of renewable energy, or 37.7% of its energy mix, and aims to reach 52% by 2030. "We have more than ten years of hindsight on renewable energies. It’s not just about installing wind turbines or solar panels, but also in terms of land, regulations or the network," details Mohamed Yahya Zniber, president of the Green H2 Cluster, who believes that this base is "important to be able to move relatively quickly in the development of hydrogen."

Morocco and the EU signed a "green partnership" on October 18, marking the beginning of an unprecedented energy cooperation. On October 21, Germany already announced the granting of 38 million euros in aid to Morocco for the construction of a first green hydrogen plant in Africa. Morocco plans to capture up to 4% of global demand by 2050, but still faces several constraints, including its significant imports of fossil fuels, which account for more than 75% of its energy consumption. "Tomorrow, we must be able to have all the downstream chemistry to produce green ammonia or methanol to which we had no access until now," argues Mohamed Yahya Zniber.

Since 2021, the Moroccan group OCP has been developing a pilot plant for the production of green ammonia on its Jorf Lasfar site, near Safi. But the production costs of green hydrogen are still high. This does not prevent investors from taking an interest in this promising sector in Morocco. The Belgian John Cockrill announced on January 5 his intention to build a factory for the manufacture of alkaline electrolyzers, in partnership with a Moroccan company. Moundir Zniber, president of Gaia Energy, also signed an agreement in November with the Israeli H2Pro for the production of large-capacity electrolyzers in Morocco.

In addition, the production of green hydrogen is likely to exacerbate Morocco’s water stress, which is going through the worst drought it has experienced in 30 years. To address this situation, Morocco plans to build around 20 seawater desalination plants by 2030, of which 9 are already operational and represent only 3% of the national production volume. There is also the issue of transporting the fuel, which should require the rehabilitation of port infrastructure and even the reopening of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline.