Green hydrogen: ‘L'Offre Maroc’ receives 40 project applications
- Decarbonising the economy, the basis of the MASEN plan
- What is L'Offre Maroc and what does it do?
- Tarik Moufaddal, a life dedicated to renewable energies
Five months after the launch of L'Offre Maroc, the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy, MASEN, has received confirmation from the government on the availability of the land announced last March, which has aroused the interest of more than 40 investors from around the world, especially from the United States, the Middle East and Europe.
As confirmed by Tarik Moufaddal, president and CEO of MASEN, in charge of managing the investments: ‘The positive point is that most of Morocco's regions have received the attention of these investors.
Decarbonising the economy, the basis of the MASEN plan
The project consists of a digital platform that will facilitate access to investment in renewable energies produced in Morocco. Morocco is already one of the countries with the greatest development and production of clean energy in the world.
With its sights set on the goal of carbon neutrality by 2030, the Moroccan government, through the ‘L'Offre Maroc’ plan, plans to produce more than 3 million tonnes of green hydrogen.
Hydrogen, which can be produced from natural gas, biomass or nuclear energy, is considered ‘green’ when its water molecules are separated by electricity generated by renewable energies such as wind, hydro or solar power.
Owners of projects that are part of the L'Offre Maroc can apply to benefit from the incentives of the Investment Charter, in accordance with the legislative texts in force.
Its utilities range from transport fuel to use in the chemical and cement industries. However, its main use is still in the use of energy to obtain electricity.
Rachid Sari, director of the African Centre for Strategic Studies and Digitalisation, said that ‘green hydrogen is a promising energy and its production cost will be low’.
He taught that the activation of this new field ‘will contribute to reducing the energy bill that the country imports, through the production of electricity, and thus will not only provide energy security, but will also work on exporting it abroad’.
What is L'Offre Maroc and what does it do?
L'Offre Maroc is a renewable energy development plan focused on the production of green hydrogen. It is a plan that seeks to open up to the rest of the world in terms of investment to help promote the use of renewable energies, not only in Morocco, but also in other countries that look favourably on the North African country's plans for the future with a view to the goal of carbon neutrality.
Presented by the Moroccan government in March, the project consists of a first phase in which the government, headed by Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, will allocate up to 300,000 hectares of land in lots of 10,000 and 30,000 hectares.
Morocco expects to cover 4% of the world's green hydrogen production by 2030
In terms of energy, Morocco's consumption is estimated at 4TW/year. At the same time, the country plans to export around 10TW of energy, or 300,000 tonnes of green hydrogen, equivalent to 10% of expected production. With this move, Morocco hopes to become a benchmark in the sector, as in other industries such as the automobile industry, with the promotion of the NamX brand, which runs on green hydrogen, and phosphates.
The aim of the project is to generate electricity from renewable energies and electrolysis, in addition to the transformation of green hydrogen. However, challenges remain. Green hydrogen technology remains expensive, with production costs ranging from 3 to 6.5 dollars per kilogramme, according to estimates by the International Energy Agency.
Tarik Moufaddal, a life dedicated to renewable energies
More than 15 years of professional career, solid training and extensive experience were sufficient reasons for the Moroccan Tarik Moufaddal to be chosen by the Moroccan government as the most important person in charge of renewable energies in the country.
Tarik has been involved in the development and growth of clean energy for more than two decades. In order to boost energy production, Tarik has held important positions in renowned companies in the energy industry.
In particular at TotalEnergies Africa as supply manager and at its branch in France as strategy project manager and later general manager of TotalEnergies Tanzania.
In his new role, Tarik will seek to meet the national targets of meeting 50% of the country's energy needs through clean energy. To this end, he has a budget of more than 56 billion dollars. Among the company's ambitious plans is to position itself as a leader in the MENA region in terms of green energy production.