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Rabat – You know that Morocco is doing something well when Youtube educational videos about the Sahara solar energy are attracting millions of viewers. Even the currently famous science novelist Andrew Weir could not resist. The author of the celebrated book and movie, the Martian, introduced the idea of the Sahara solar power to fight off an alien life that was killing the sun in his latest book: Hail Mary.
Morocco boasts the largest concentrated solar power plant on the planet. Noor Ouarzazate is a vast complex of parabolic mirrors, turbines, storage tanks, and towers. It is both an engineering marvel and an inspiration to millions in Africa and the entire globe. Furthermore, Morocco became a net exporter of electricity in the last couple of years. All thanks to a vision and inspiration that were instituted by his majesty King Mohammed VI himself, starting with a national environment charter that was the first in any Arab nation.
Recently, I was invited to provide feedback in a segment about renewable energy on Morocco TV Al Oula and that made me think more about renewables and why they are important for Morocco. I was also lucky to attend the experts’ conference on the Green Charter which took place in Rabat in 2010. There were tough questions and real doubts but plans had already been set in motion, and a decade later, by 2020, Morocco had built Noor 1, 2, 3, and 4 stations producing close to 600 MW of green electricity. Noor 4 is a PV (PhotoVoltaic) based power plant, while the rest are CSP (Concentrated Solar Power). Bni Mathar South of Oujda is an earlier CSP park but is used as a topping cycle to a gas-fired power plant. In other words, solar energy was used as a secondary source not a primary for the production of electricity in Bni Mthar. But it served as a good first CSP experience in Morocco.
Currently, Morocco is far from carbon neutral, although the goal has been set for 2040. Also, it does have competitors, for example, the largest Photovoltaic plant is the Noor Abu Dhabi in the UAE at 1.2 GW with a claimed cost of under $1B. Noor Abu Dhabi’s water usage is low compared to the CSP technology used in Noor Ouarzazate in Morocco. Abu Dhabi is also aiming for 2GW– a goal that Morocco targeted for 2020 but has missed. However, credit must be given for the vision, initiative, and hard work of the Moroccan engineers that set these mega projects in motion more than two decades ago and at that conference for the Green Charter.
In terms of water usage, Mansour Dhahbi dam is critical to the area of Ouarzazate, and solutions to decrease water consumption are of utmost importance. Instead of wet cooling or even dry cooling for turbines, sCO2 (fluid CO2) based turbines should be considered for the long term. These turbines do not use water or steam as their primary working medium. The technology is still not widely commercialized but there are serious efforts underway to bring it to market in the US and other countries. Short of converting to PV cells, there are no easy solutions to the water issue. Plus the storage available for CSP is not the same for PV–PV storage is more expensive. I leave it to the ingenuity of the Moroccan engineers to develop solutions and to continue to innovate. Water and energy are inextricably linked and so every effort should be made to save and increase efficiency.
More recently Morocco OCP (Office Cherifien des Phosphates), under the leadership of Hanane Mourchid for sustainability, set its sight on something more interesting, the production of green hydrogen and ammonia, which are needed for fertilizers. This is a $13B investment for Morocco. Morocco imports 2 Million tons of ammonia every year, which is added to phosphorus to produce diammonium– a critical fertilizer. But it imports brown ammonia, which requires a lot of heat in production, and a carbon-based source to generate that heat, which is usually Methane. Instead, OCP is proposing to use only water, air, and green electricity to generate both hydrogen and ammonia. Moreover, the water will be extracted from the ocean, and processed through desalination.
If I didn’t know better, I would say that OCP wants their cake and they want to eat it too. OCP wants to close the complete cycle from the food we eat to the energy needed to produce it, all green, with zero carbon emission. Despite these grandiose plans, all of the claims in the proposal are real and possible with today’s technology. Green hydrogen can be produced from water via electrolysis i.e., electricity, and green ammonia can be made from the green hydrogen and nitrogen in the air also via electricity.
There are two things to watch out for when completely green solutions are presented. One is cost and the other is technology readiness. In the final analysis, cost will be about how much we care for the environment and how much someone else is willing to pay us for it. Because right now green hydrogen and green ammonia cost more than brown hydrogen and ammonia.
Technology readiness is about whether the technology is ready to go to prime time, meaning can it really deliver at an industrial scale. As of the time of this writing, there is only one technique that can scale affordably, and that is the brown technique called “steam reforming,” with methane as a source of hydrogen and heat. The other techniques need further development and further pilot projects, which Morocco is currently engaged in.
The US Department of energy has a goal of $1/kg for green hydrogen production by 2031. This program is called the hydrogen shot. I believe it is important to keep an eye on its development. As a point of reference, methane steam reforming for the production of hydrogen is roughly at the $1-2 /kg price already. Finally, we should not close the door on natural hydrogen production. It turns out that Mali is currently generating electricity from natural hydrogen directly from the ground.
Note also that Morocco is considering nuclear energy in addition to its current energy mix. I truly believe that this is a necessary long-term solution in order to continue life on our planet– or off of it. Producing hydrogen via nuclear energy directly is also a possibility, although the technology readiness for this industry is a 4 out of 10 right now. In order to scale affordably, the technology readiness index must be at 8 or higher.
The challenges are real, but the goal and proposals have tremendous potential for the economy, food security, and most importantly the environment. I am supremely confident that Moroccan engineers are truly innovative and resourceful contributors, and compete at the international level in achieving these goals. They are definitely on par or better than their European, American or Asian counterparts. Two decades ago, Morocco did not have university programs that graduated renewable energy engineers but now they do.
There are serious research programs underway at University Mohammed V, Kenitra Ibn Tofeil University, Rabat Mohammadia School of engineering, and others, which are producing Ph. D. candidates in various energy fields. It is important that the new projects by OCP engage the diverse university eco-system of Morocco, whether they are in Rabat, Marrakech, Meknes, Fes, Oujda, Laayoune, or Tangier in order to tap into our best renewable resource–Moroccan intellect!
