The
Moroccan government is set to allocate 1 million hectares of land to green
hydrogen projects as part of a plan to incentivize investors. The authorities
will provide some 300,000 hectares for investors in a first phase, as part of
the long-awaited plan announced on March 11 by Morocco’s Prime Minister Aziz
Akhannouch, according to Bloomberg.
The plots will range from 10,000-30,000 hectares and the offer applies to
integrated projects, including renewable power generation, conversion of green
hydrogen into ammonia, methanol and synthetic fuels, and related logistics, the
government said.
The
offer applies to projects proposing offtake both for export and for domestic
use, it said. Some 100 national and international investors have already
expressed interest in producing green hydrogen in Morocco, according to the
report.
Moroccan phosphates group OCP Group SA plans to invest 130 billion dirhams
($12.3 billion) between 2023-2027 to ramp up its transition to carbon
neutrality. The company last month received a $188 million loan from the
African Development Fund (AfDB) to go towards the construction of three
desalination plants powered by renewable energy as part of its green investment
plan (GM Feb. 23, p. 35).
Last year, OCP lined up a €100 million green loan from the International Finance Corp. (IFC) to help fund the building of two solar power facilities that will provide clean energy to its operations in the Moroccan mining towns of Benguerir and Khouribga (GM Oct. 13, 2023).