Morocco Emerges as Africa’s Green Hydrogen Pioneer in Clean Energy Push

In a new report published on Monday, McKinsey & Company explored the levers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing sector in Africa and thus achieve carbon neutrality.

In a continent today at the crossroads of industrialization and ecological transition, Morocco has made strategic choices to succeed in this double transition. The kingdom seems well equipped to meet this challenge, the report notes.

The McKinsey analysts stressed that the country has considerable renewable energy resources and the Moroccan authorities are betting on this "fuel of the future" through several industrial-scale projects.

In this sense, a green hydrogen development strategy has been put in place following the recommendations of the study which confirmed Morocco’s significant potential for the development of this sector. Morocco can capture up to 4% of global demand for green molecules. "The development of large-scale green hydrogen production is the key to Morocco’s Net zero future strategy. The country is taking concrete steps to make progress on this front," the report says.

This includes, among other things, the creation of the National Hydrogen Commission to facilitate the implementation of the roadmap for the production of hydrogen and its derivatives from renewable energies. The World Power-to-X Summit, organized by the Institute for Solar Energy and New Energies Research (IRESEN) and the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) from December 1 to 3, 2020, served as a lever for a new era of clean energy, made possible by the opportunities offered by green hydrogen and its derivative products.

Among the main projects also highlighted in the report, the one led by the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (Onhym). The latter is leading the working group on gas infrastructure of the Commission in order to propose recommendations on the conversion of existing pipelines in favor of hydrogen as well as the development of a logistics platform to transport this energy to Europe, the same source points out.