Green Hydrogen in Morocco and North Africa: Plans and Reality
Green hydrogen Morocco: the 2021 roadmap's export figures, the million-hectare land offer, Chbika's ammonia plan, and the water question.
• Morocco's 2021 hydrogen roadmap is a scenario, not a construction schedule: 4 TWh of local demand and 10 TWh of exports by 2030, needing about 8 GW of renewables in that scenario, and much larger numbers by 2050.
• In March 2024 the government identified up to 1 million hectares for projects, with a first phase of 300,000 hectares in lots of 10,000–30,000 hectares.
• The Chbika announcement (October 2024) is a preliminary land deal for 1 GW of solar and wind and 200,000 tonnes a year of green ammonia. It is not, on that press release, an operating plant.
• The reaction itself uses about 9 litres of water per kilogram of hydrogen. Land, renewable build-out and a European buyer matter more than that litre count. Whether projects have a final investment decision is the fact to check.
Green hydrogen Morocco is a small search and a large national bet. The country has sun, wind, Atlantic ports and a short sea route to Europe, and it has written that combination into a government roadmap and a public land offer. North Africa as a whole is full of similar announcements. The useful question is narrower: which Moroccan numbers are in an official document, which projects have a named site and a named product, and which sentences are still a target year on a slide. This article stays inside those documents.
Green hydrogen Morocco: what the 2021 roadmap actually counted
The Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development published a green-hydrogen roadmap built around "power-to-X": hydrogen, ammonia, methanol and synthetic fuels made from renewable electricity. In the scenario it labels as conditional potential, the local market is 4 TWh in 2030, 22 TWh in 2040 and 40 TWh in 2050. Exports are 10 TWh, 46 TWh and 115 TWh in those same years. The renewable capacity the roadmap attaches to that scenario is 8 GW, 37 GW and 78 GW. Read the three columns together. The 2030 export figure is not a claim that 115 TWh is around the corner, and the 8 GW is not a list of financed plants. It is the renewable fleet the authors say that particular demand would require.
The roadmap points exports at ammonia and synthetic fuels rather than at ships full of hydrogen gas, and it puts domestic industry, fertiliser first, ahead of transport. A research platform, GreenH2A, and the Green Energy Park at Ben Guerir are described as cluster pieces, not as the export industry.
One project is sized in megawatts rather than in national terawatt-hours. Under a Moroccan-German partnership, MASEN is described as developing a reference plant: hybrid solar and wind feeding about 100 MW of electrolysis, with commercial operation then aimed at 2024–2025. That date has passed relative to a reader in 2026. This article does not have a commissioning notice in front of it. [CHECK whether that reference plant is operating, delayed, or still a partnership on paper before you quote 2025 as a start year.]
| Roadmap scenario | 2030 | 2040 | 2050 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local market | 4 TWh | 22 TWh | 40 TWh |
| Exports | 10 TWh | 46 TWh | 115 TWh |
| Renewables the scenario asks for | 8 GW | 37 GW | 78 GW |
The land offer, and what "one million hectares" means
In March 2024 Reuters reported that Morocco would dedicate up to 1 million hectares to green-hydrogen projects. The first phase is 300,000 hectares, split into lots of 10,000 to 30,000 hectares. The same report said roughly 100 investors had shown interest, and it repeated the national electricity target of 52% renewable capacity by 2030, against a 37.6% share at the time of the article. Treat 37.6% as a March 2024 figure, not as today's grid. [CHECK the latest capacity share before you put it in a tender.] MASEN's public page on the Moroccan Offer is the institutional home of that land process.
Three hundred thousand hectares is 3,000 square kilometres. An envelope of land, in parcels, not a factory. Projects still have to bring power plants, water, a port plan and a customer. A parcel is the start of permitting, not production.
The IEA's Global Hydrogen Review 2025 groups this kind of land concession with similar tools in countries such as Oman, Mauritania and Jordan: a way for a government to offer sites and to pick developers. The same review's global message applies here without a special pleading. Announced electrolyser capacity, worldwide, is far ahead of projects that have taken a final investment decision. A hectare on a map is not a FID.
Chbika: a worked check on 200,000 tonnes of ammonia
On 28 October 2024, TotalEnergies (through TE H2), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and A.P. Moller Capital said they had signed a preliminary land reservation contract for a project at Chbika, in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region. The press release describes a first phase of 1 GW of solar and wind, electrolysis fed by desalinated seawater, and 200,000 tonnes a year of green ammonia aimed at Europe. "Preliminary land contract" is the status in that document. It is not a photograph of a plant.
Ammonia, NH₃, is the export form because it is easier to ship than hydrogen gas, and because fertiliser and shipping fuels already know what to do with it. By mass, three of ammonia's 17 grams are hydrogen, so the hydrogen inside 200,000 tonnes of ammonia is 200,000 × 3/17 ≈ 35,300 tonnes of H₂ a year.
Use 50 kWh of electricity per kilogram of hydrogen as a round alkaline-electrolyser example, not as Chbika's design. Then 35,300 tonnes needs 35.3 million × 50 ≈ 1.8 TWh a year at the electrolyser. A 1 GW renewable plant at a 40% capacity factor would generate 1 × 0.4 × 8,760 ≈ 3.5 TWh a year. On those two assumptions the electricity quantity fits inside the announced gigawatt, with room for losses and for the desalination load. That is a sanity check. It is not evidence that the project is financed, sized, or on schedule. [CHECK the 50 kWh/kg and the 40% capacity factor against the developer's own study. A worse capacity factor, or a thirstier electrolyser, uses the margin quickly.]
| Step | Figure | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Ammonia, first phase, as announced | 200,000 t/year | Press release, October 2024 |
| Hydrogen inside that ammonia | About 35,300 t/year | Chemistry: 3/17 of the mass |
| Electricity at 50 kWh/kg | About 1.8 TWh/year | Assumption, not a project number |
| 1 GW renewables at 40% capacity factor | About 3.5 TWh/year | Assumption, for scale only |
| Land and water in the announcement | Preliminary contract; desalinated seawater | Not a construction completion |
Water, land, and the North African pattern
The electrolysis reaction consumes about 9 kilograms of water per kilogram of hydrogen. For the 35,300 tonnes above, that is about 320,000 cubic metres a year. A city drinks more. The reaction is not the drought. Purification, cooling, the energy the desalination plant uses, and the brine it returns to the sea are the real water questions. Chbika names desalinated seawater rather than an aquifer, and it does not publish a full water balance. [CHECK that balance in the environmental study.]
Land is the larger footprint. Identified hectares become panels only where a grid, a port and a community agreement exist. Noor Ouarzazate is a solar plant, not a hydrogen plant, and it is the reminder that Morocco can build large renewable sites, each with its own line, offtake and lenders.
Neighbours are making the same offer to Europe. The IEA's cost chapter is the check on all of them: renewable hydrogen is still several times fossil hydrogen in most places, and a buyer plus support is what turns a land contract into a plant. Morocco's advantage is resource and distance. It is not a cheaper electrolyser than a plant built in China, unless the power is cheap and the hours are high.
Real: a published roadmap with terawatt-hour scenarios, a state land offer measured in hundreds of thousands of hectares, and at least one named ammonia project with serious sponsors and a preliminary site.
Not yet shown in those documents: hundreds of thousands of tonnes of Moroccan green ammonia on a ship, or the 78 GW renewable fleet in the 2050 column.
Verdict: cite the roadmap as a scenario and Chbika as an announced first phase. Ask, every time, whether there is a final investment decision and a named offtaker. [CHECK both before you call a project "under construction".]
Frequently asked questions
What is the green hydrogen plan in Morocco?
The 2021 roadmap's headline scenario is 4 TWh of domestic use and 10 TWh of exports by 2030, associated with about 8 GW of new renewables, scaling to 115 TWh of exports and 78 GW by 2050. Those are scenario totals, not a plant list.
How much land has Morocco set aside?
Reuters, March 2024: up to 1 million hectares identified, first phase 300,000 hectares, in lots of 10,000–30,000 hectares. That is land available to be studied, not land already covered in panels.
Is the Chbika project operating?
The October 2024 announcement was a preliminary land reservation for 1 GW of renewables and 200,000 tonnes a year of green ammonia, using desalinated seawater. Do not describe it as operating on the strength of that release. [CHECK for a later investment decision.]
Does green hydrogen in Morocco use up drinking water?
The Chbika plan says desalinated seawater. The reaction needs about 9 litres per kilogram of hydrogen. Process water and brine are the environmental questions, and they belong in the impact study, which this article does not replace.
Why ammonia, not hydrogen gas?
Ammonia is what the fertiliser trade and a growing share of the shipping-fuel plans already move. It carries the hydrogen in a liquid the ports know. The roadmap's export case is mostly this kind of molecule, not compressed gas in a bottle.
How does this compare with projects elsewhere in North Africa and the Gulf?
The pattern is shared: cheap-looking sun and wind, a state that offers land, and a customer imagined in Europe or Asia. NEOM, in Saudi Arabia, is further along than Morocco's export announcements; our atlas marks it as under construction. Being earlier does not make a Moroccan project less serious. It does mean the status word has to be accurate.
See the regional map on our project atlas, including Noor Ouarzazate and NEOM. For what "green" does and does not mean, and for the kilowatt-hours inside a kilogram, read what green hydrogen is.
Sources
- Ministry of Energy Transition, Morocco: Feuille de route de l'hydrogène vert (PDF)
- MASEN: the Moroccan green hydrogen offer
- Reuters, 11 March 2024: Morocco's land offer
- TotalEnergies, 28 October 2024: Chbika preliminary land contract
- IEA Global Hydrogen Review 2025, executive summary
- IEA Global Hydrogen Review 2025 (PDF)
- IRENA: hydrogen
