2024-11-12 21:00:00
HThere is no wind in the palm garden. In the October sun of Marrakech, senior officials, businessmen and bankers fill their plates. The pack carriers clump together in groups. They didn’t come for the grilled vegetables or braised fish. Contacts are made here and deals are prepared. Here the wind and sun are turned into a billion-dollar business.
These days it’s all about one thing in the Palais de Congrès of the old royal city: green hydrogen. Visitors from all over the world have flown to the World Power-to-X conference to see how Morocco plans to create a completely new sector. The port of Rotterdam, the Schiphol Group, Gasunie and the Dutch government have also sent people to Marrakesh.
Like many other countries, the Netherlands sees green hydrogen as indispensable for the energy transition. To make aviation, shipping and industry more sustainable, shiploads full of hydrogen products are expected to arrive in Rotterdam in a few years. And Morocco could well become an important supplier.
Excellent wind and sun conditions
“First we expect hydrogen from countries such as Canada, Spain and Oman. Partly because the infrastructure there is already somewhat further developed,” says Johan Douma of Gasunie, who came to Marrakesh at the request of the government to build relationships and get a feel for the Moroccan plans. “Morocco is also on the list for next. The wind and sun conditions are excellent here, the potential is enormous. But a lot still needs to be done.”
The ambition is evident in the North African country. Morocco wants to become one of the largest hydrogen producers in the world. To achieve this, in March the government made an area of 1 million hectares (roughly Gelderland and North Brabant together) available to future producers under the name l’Offre Maroc. These manufacturers are mainly preying on the hectares around the city of Dakhla.
“Nowhere in the world is sustainable electricity cheaper than in Dakhla,” says Younes Haffane during the lunch break in the Palais des Congrès. When Haffane first stepped off a plane in the desert town two and a half years ago, he heard it immediately.
“The sound of the wind, but as constant as that of a generator,” recalls the man who has to develop a 5 billion euro green hydrogen project from the desert for the French-Moroccan MGH Energy Maroc. “That was the moment I knew things were going to work out.”
Wind three hundred days a year
Dakhla is located in a remote corner of the world, on the tip of a peninsula between the vast emptiness of Western Sahara and the even greater emptiness of the Atlantic Ocean. The city is like a honeycomb for kite surfers. They come for the wind that blows three hundred days a year.
The same wind, plus the strong Saharan sun, means that the region has an almost unparalleled potential for the generation of green energy. Currently, fishing and tourism are still the city’s main sources of income, but that could soon change.
About 40 kilometers north of Dakhla, a group of wild camels trudge along a brand new two-lane road. The desert here is rocky yellow and brown. The asphalt turns a stark gray. “It’s always busy lately,” grins a coffee seller at the driveway. His business has been booming since this piece of sandy land became the gateway to one of North Africa’s largest infrastructure projects: The Dakhla New Atlantic Port.
Trucks with construction materials drive back and forth. With a budget of 1.1 billion euros, the government will have a new deep-sea port rise from the water here in just seven years. The contours are already visible, from the coast the first piers cut 500 meters into the ocean.
New deep sea port in Dakhla
The company will use the green energy to produce hydrogen via electrolysis of water. “We then convert that into sustainable fuel for aircraft and ships.” From 2032, the factory must produce 500,000 tons of fuel annually. Haffane: “We initially want to make this for the Moroccan market. But our production is bigger than that. We need the port to also export the fuel to Europe, for example to Rotterdam.”
Haffane’s employer is one of forty developers who have registered for the plots of land that will be distributed for hydrogen projects. Together, the projects could create tens of thousands of jobs on the Sahara coast.
It is a prospect that makes Nabil Ameziane’s eyes shine. “Dakhla now has about 200,000 inhabitants,” says the local official. He is responsible for promoting the city to investors. But he also happily comes to the roof terrace of Hotel Playa on his day off for a foreign journalist. “All these new jobs will increase the population in this region to perhaps half a million in 2030.”
A turning point for the Moroccan economy
The Moroccan government sees prosperity shining for the entire country. Green hydrogen ‘could be a turning point for the Moroccan economy’, government officials wrote early this year in a document accompanying the presentation of the ambitious L’Offre Maroc. The country sees itself as having a key role in the global energy transition. ‘The interest of almost a hundred national and international investors to produce green hydrogen in Morocco confirms the potential of the kingdom.’
Yet not everyone is happy with the plans in the desert. Despite the great interest, hydrogen export from Dakhla is extremely sensitive. This is evident, for example, from the fact that Haffane Fidelity calls for the words ‘Western Sahara’ to be replaced by ‘Moroccan Sahara’. “Linking my name or that of the project with that different wording could have a negative impact on us,” he said via email.
The play on words is the result of a geopolitical minefield. Fidelity uses the name Western Sahara, just like the UN and the Dutch government. Until 1975, Western Sahara was a Spanish colony. When the Spanish left in a hurry, the phosphate-rich desert soils became a disputed area.
Morocco claimed the former Spanish regions, while the Saharan inhabitants wanted their own state. It led to a war, one that continues to this day. Morocco now controls more than two-thirds of the area, including the coast. The Saharawi nationalists Polisario run their own republic in the remainder.
Who Owns Western Sahara?
They still demand that Morocco also leave the rest of Western Sahara. They see themselves supported in this claim by the United Nations. They believe that the Saharawi people have the right to self-determination. The fact that this right does not exist in practice is evident from the oppression of Saharawi activists in the areas controlled by Morocco, human rights organizations write.
They point to Abdel Tawab Al-Turkzi as an illustration. He was kidnapped and abused by authorities last year after he emphasized his Sahrawi heritage in a Spanish tourist video and expressed support for the independent Sahrawi Republic, the UN and Amnesty International said.
Dakhla is home to an extensive military base. Every minute an army jeep drives through the main street of the city. Soldiers zip around on mopeds. The green and red Moroccan flag flies everywhere in the city.
As the city grows, the region is becoming increasingly Moroccan. The friendly water seller comes from Guelmim, the slightly squinting taxi driver from a village near Marrakesh. “The previous king appealed to the people from our region to move here. So my parents did that,” says the taxi driver. “And they weren’t the only ones, entire groups left here.”
A work of art from Northern Morocco in Dakhla
On Saturday evening it is busy on the Boulevard Mohammed V. The whole of Dakhla has come out to stroll. Groups of young people take photos in front of a work of art made of a meter-high teapot. “The funny thing is that this is not even a local teapot, it is one from Northern Morocco,” says a Saharawi student, who does not want his name in the newspaper for fear of repression. “It’s little things like this that wash away our culture.”
By now, it’s hard to imagine that Dakhla and the rest of the Sahara coast could ever be anything other than Moroccan. Yet that is what Saharawi nationalists still dream of. They take every opportunity to make that dream come true. Also the road to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Saharawis there challenged a fisheries treaty between the European Union and Morocco. With success.
At the beginning of October, the highest European court ruled that Morocco does not have the right to open the coastal waters of Western Sahara to European fishermen without the consent of the Saharawi people. “That permission was not given,” the Court writes. In a second ruling on the same day, European judges ruled that tomatoes and melons from Western Sahara cannot be sold in Europe with the Morocco label.
Is the complex political situation also a risk for hydrogen projects? “It is indeed a sensitive matter,” says Younes Haffane when this subject is discussed. “There are investors who say: we cannot be active in the area. But many others do. We have decided to only work with partners, investors and customers from countries that are aligned with the Moroccan vision. Fortunately, there are more and more of these types of countries.”
The desert soils have great potential
Haffane is right. The number of countries supporting Morocco in the conflict has increased rapidly over the past four years. The United States even openly stated in 2020 that Western Sahara belongs to Morocco. Other countries support the Moroccan plan to give the area limited autonomy within the Moroccan kingdom. The Netherlands also supported this route two years ago, together with France, Spain and Germany, among others.
Green hydrogen plays a role in this geopolitical game. The sustainable potential of the desert soils around Dakhla is enormous. But Morocco is currently determining the rules of the game. The foreign speakers at the chic conference in Marrakesh also notice this.
“We were asked to only use maps in our PowerPoint on which the Sahara belongs to Morocco,” says a Dutch speaker, who wishes to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the subject. He granted the request, just like every other speaker.
The flame of resistance also seems to be extinguishing in Dakhla itself. “There is no point in talking about politics,” says the Saharawi student on the busy Saturday evening in the city. “It is no longer clear who is the bad guy and who is the good guy.” He prefers to talk about the ever-present wind. “No one can get mad if you grumble about that, right?”
The full names of the Dutch speaker and the Sahrawi student are known to the editors-in-chief
Also read:
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Making green hydrogen requires a lot of water. But water is scarce around the largest electrolyser in South Africa. Local residents have noticed this for years.
The way seems clear for Morocco to officially annex Western Sahara
Spain has still supported Morocco’s plan for Western Sahara as an autonomous region. The hope for independence of many Saharans seems to have disappeared for the time being.
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And Morocco’s strategic location make it a prime candidate for green hydrogen production aimed at the European market. Officials envision that the production and export of green hydrogen from the Dakhla region could significantly boost the Moroccan economy and cement the country’s role in the global energy transition.
However, the ongoing conflict over Western Sahara complicates these ambitions. While Morocco seeks to attract international investors for its green hydrogen projects, the sensitivity around the territorial dispute poses risks. Haffane’s acknowledgment of the hesitance among some investors speaks to this concern, emphasizing the need for selective partnerships with countries that align with Morocco’s political stance.
The European Union’s recent rulings against Morocco’s claims to Western Sahara’s resources highlight the legal and ethical dimensions investors must navigate. Morocco’s increasing diplomatic support, particularly from nations like the United States, suggests a shift in international attitudes, yet the legitimacy of Saharawi claims remains a contentious issue.
The juxtaposition of economic opportunity against a backdrop of human rights concerns raises critical questions about sustainable development in politically sensitive areas. As Morocco prepares to expand its hydrogen production capacity, it must balance economic interests with the rights and aspirations of the Saharawi people, who continue to advocate for self-determination amid a challenging sociopolitical landscape. This complex scenario underscores the intricate ties between energy, geopolitics, and local identity in the Sahara region.
