German company Mohring Energie Holding recently signed a framework agreement with Mauritania to develop a large-scale green hydrogen and ammonia production project in the northwest African country.

The project, located in the south, where “excellent wind and solar conditions coincide” will initially feature 100MW of electrolysis capacity, with the aim to scale up to 1GW.

The project will aim to produce up to 140,000t/yr of green hydrogen and 400,000t/yr of green ammonia for export to European markets. Production is scheduled to start in 2029.

The framework agreement with Mauritania, is linked to a land allocation for the project with an area of about 500km² in the area west of the commercial city of Nouadhibou, with a potential expansion of about 1,600km².

In addition to green molecule production, the project includes plans for seawater desalination and the use of the byproducts in local agriculture, increasing its appeal to the government.

Mohring joins a growing list of developers entering Mauritania, which has long been touted as one of the world’s most attractive locations for low-cost green molecule production, given its wind and solar potential. The country also has a long track record as a commodities exporter to Europe and elsewhere. It is a top-ten global supplier of iron ore.

On the energy front, oil and gas major BP recently began exporting from its GTA Phase 1 LNG project offshore Mauritania and Senegal. Mauritania discovered its first large natural gas field, the Grande Tortue Ahmeyim, on the maritime border with Senegal, in 2015.

The government was quick to recognise the green molecule opportunity, launching a low carbon strategy in 2021, with ambitions to grab up to 1.5% of the global market, with production of about 20mt/yr by 2050. For context, that is double the EU’s 2030 target. 

It has developed a ‘Hydrogen Code’ development programme and introduced incentives to attract international investors, including a comprehensive incentive framework to exemptions from VAT and export taxes, a reduction in import customs duties from 4% to 2% for early projects and corporate tax incentives.

Green steel

Perhaps more striking about the strategy is a target to secure about 1% of the global market for green steel by using locally produced green hydrogen to process locally mined iron ore.

This plays into the early buzz around green hydrogen: its potential to re-draw the world’s energy and industrial map, with decarbonising industries relocating to renewables-rich countries and drawing on local green hydrogen production, rather than shipping the molecules to the old industrial centres.

This big-picture thinking around green hydrogen has been drowned out recently by the industry’s struggles to gain momentum. Volatile geopolitics, concerns over national energy security and waning enthusiasm in some regions for the transition to low carbon, have also muddied the waters for hydrogen, and tempered that early optimism.

The prospect of losing strategic industries to the world’s dominant solar and wind regions remains deeply troubling to governments in Europe and elsewhere.

However, the economics will have a say and in the long-term the Mauritania model of local hydrogen feeding local industry might be difficult for the markets to resist.

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Author: Stuart Penson