Mauritania.. Huge potential for green hydrogen production and interest from global companies

Nouakchott - The Mauritanian Ministry of Petroleum, Mines and Energy concluded on Friday an international conference in Nouakchott, organized in cooperation with the World Bank and the African Green Hydrogen Alliance, under the title "Accelerating Green Hydrogen Financing in Africa".

The conference, which was attended by experts from Arab and African countries, international delegations and companies active in the field of hydrogen in Mauritania, discussed the problems of financing green hydrogen projects in Africa and ways to accelerate them, the economic and social benefits of the green hydrogen economy, and ways to achieve them, promote economic development and create clean and sustainable jobs.

In a special statement to Al Jazeera Net on the sidelines of the closing sessions of the conference, Mr. Khormbali Habib, advisor in charge of crude fuels at the Ministry of Energy in Mauritania, said that this conference comes within the framework of the Mauritanian government's direction aimed at advancing the development of the green hydrogen sector and its derivatives and green industries in general.

The conference focused on ways to accelerate and facilitate the financing of green hydrogen projects in African countries and in Mauritania in particular, and highlighted the appropriate legal and tax framework regulating this sector.

A promising future

As for the future of hydrogen energy in Mauritania, Ould Lahbib believes that all indications indicate that this energy has a great future in Mauritania in terms of local manufacturing and export potential, stressing that Mauritania has unique capabilities in this field (more than 4,500 gigawatts, of which <> are scalable).

The country's wind fields, with their high speed, are hardly found in any other country, as well as the high rate of solar radiation throughout the year, in addition to the vast area, small population and location close to European markets.

He noted that there is a great demand from international companies to study investment in this field in Mauritania, as so far memoranda and agreements have been signed to develop more than 80 gigawatts of renewable energy to produce green hydrogen and its derivatives, and there are ongoing studies to find out the possibility of creating green steel industries.

Escalating investments

Advisor Ould Habib confirmed – in a special statement to Al Jazeera Net – that the volume of investments in Mauritanian hydrogen is very large, but the numbers in this initial phase of projects that will be implemented in stages are still variable and inaccurate.

He added that so far memorandums of understanding and agreements have been signed with international companies to develop hydrogen projects, 3 of which are in the feasibility studies stage:

• The 30 gigawatt Aman project, by 2030, is being developed by CWP and requires an investment of $40 billion.
• The Noor project is a 10-gigawatt production project developed by Britain's Charriott and France's Total.
• The "Arn" project to produce 10 gigawatts.

The BP project, which aims to have a production capacity of 30 gigawatts, is still in the stage of preliminary studies and energy measurements, according to the consultant.

Mauritania also recently signed a $34 billion deal with a consortium including Egypt's Infinity, UAE's Masdar and Germany's Congonecta to produce green hydrogen.

On the impact of these projects on the Mauritanian economy, Chancellor Ould Habib explained to Al Jazeera Net that preliminary studies indicate important effects in all areas, including reducing the cost of electricity and creating conditions for manufacturing, especially green steel, and providing water in large quantities in the northern regions of the country and creating great opportunities for operation, but adds that it requires creating conditions, developing infrastructure and improving technical formation.

Mauritanian energy minister confirmed that his country has developed a vision to ensure its position as a regional hub for the production of integrated energies (Al Jazeera)

Challenges

Mauritania, which aspires to achieve universal access to electricity by 2030, faces a number of challenges, including, according to Ould Lahbib, a weakness in the infrastructure necessary to keep pace with this type of projects, high capital costs in production projects, and the scarcity of human cadres armed with the necessary experience, which are general challenges faced by producing countries and companies, because the sector is still emerging and characterized by uncertainty regarding the availability of appropriate markets and prices, which is a natural stage that several sectors have gone through, and therefore Mauritania is working With countries, companies and organizations to overcome these difficulties and accelerate and develop the required technologies.

In his opening speech at the conference, Mauritanian Energy Minister Abdessalam Ould Mohamed Saleh said that transforming Mauritania's potential into a development reality requires mobilizing significant financial resources, raising the efficiency of technology and creating a market for exchange that can form a solid base to ensure the financing of projects.

It also requires the provision of appropriate infrastructure and the establishment of a legal, regulatory and institutional framework to ensure that the private sector and foreign investment play a key role in the production, conversion and export of green hydrogen and its derivatives.

The minister added that attracting foreign investment to finance these projects is the main challenge facing developing countries, noting that the majority of projects that have reached the final decision to invest are in industrialized countries, although the potential and energy sources are more in developing countries.

The minister stressed that Mauritania has developed an ambitious vision in the field of energy aimed at ensuring its future position as an integrated regional hub for the production of integrated energies, such as gas and renewable energies, as well as converted metals, the production of green steel and low-carbon metals and their export to international markets.

He added that his government has launched many activities and studies to develop, value and exploit the national potential of renewable energies, and has developed a road map for the development of hydrogen and its real estate registry and the preparation of laws to frame this sector.