Mauritania
Green hydrogen Vision
Mauritania has excellent renewable energy prospects making it a potential leading green hydrogen producer in Africa. Significant green hydrogen project developments and Mauritania’s proximity to the European market has the potential to increase export benefits, in addition to providing power to the national grid and various industrial activities, such as green steel production.
National Strategy
The national road map for Mauritania is under preparation by the government.
In May 2022, the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines, signed three key projects contributing to Mauritania’s leadership in the green hydrogen scene, two for green hydrogen and one focused on green steel, with plans to increase green hydrogen and ammonia production from 2030 onwards.
Capacity and Price
Mauritania has not yet identified green hydrogen targets.
Impact Targets
Mauritania has set a 92% conditional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction by 2030 compared to business as usual (NDC). In 2020, the country adopted a national strategy to transform its energy sector by increasing the share of renewables in its energy mix to 60% by 2030.
Project Spotlight
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Project Aman: The Government of Mauritania and renewable energy developer CWP have signed an MoU for the development of a US$40 billion project on the construction of the green hydrogen production facility. The project is situated in a 8,500km2 site in the country’s northern desert and coastal regions of Dakhlet Nouadhibou and Inchiri. The hybrid generators are made with wind and solar power with a capacity of 30 GW (18 GW wind and 12 GW solar), which will generate 110 TWh of electricity per annum and is expected to produce 1.7 million tons of green hydrogen and 10 million tons of green ammonia. This output is vast compared to the neighbouring country Morocco, almost three times higher than Morocco’s annual energy consumption. This project is expected to increase Mauritania’s GDP by 50-60% by 2035.
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Project Nour: Following the successful completion of a pre-feasibility study, Africa-focused transitional energy group, Chariot signed a landmark deal for green hydrogen with the Mauritanian Government in September 2021. The expected capacity for the project is 10GW. This project could become one of the largest green hydrogen projects globally by 2030. It is spread over an onshore and offshore area of about 14,400 square kilometres producing power from solar and wind resources for electrolysis to produce green hydrogen.
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Green Steel with ArcelorMittal: In May 2022, Mauritania’s state-backed SNIM (Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière de Mauritanie) signed an MoU with ArcelorMittal establishing a steel unit. The project will involve the production of 2.5 million tonnes of green steel per year. ArcelorMittal will carry out a pre-feasibility study over the next four to six months.
Financing
- In June 2022, Mauritanian President El Ghazouani signed a declaration with Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), to discuss cooperation with the world’s largest international public bank and agreed to strengthen collaboration to scale up wind, solar and green hydrogen investment. Going forward, EIB will support Mauritania's green hydrogen investment plans
- Project Aman with CWP is worth US$40 billion.