News

Morocco’s Energy Transition Conference in Rabat, March 14, 2022

Sahara Wind at the 15th Energy Conference under the theme "Energy Transition: Progress Report and Perspectives for 2035". Organized by Morocco’s Energy Federation with the support of the Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, this event brought together officials, speakers and participants from the entire energy sector at national and international levels. The United Arab Emirates was the conference's guest of honor.

Sahara Wind at WWEC 2021, New Delhi November 24-26 2021

Under the theme ‘Powering the World with Wind and Sun’ at the 19th World Wind Energy Conference WWEC2021 key stakeholders presented the latest wind energy updates. With green-hydrogen storage balancing its Multi-GW HVDC transmission line, Sahara Wind presented ‘How Africa’s Mega-Projects pave the way to a global energy transition’. As can be attested by Morocco’s pioneering wind energy figures and its ambitious green hydrogen road map, the region is set for major energy transition breakthroughs.

Sahara Wind's regional capacity building at Africa Green Hydrogen Forum, November 22 2021

By deploying Africa’s 1st Wind-Hydrogen systems on university campuses in Morocco and Mauritania with co-funding from NATO in 2012, Sahara Wind paved the way for today’s regional energy transition. At the Africa Green Hydrogen Forum, multiple green hydrogen synergies leveraged by Sahara Wind’s HVDC transmission line were demonstrated during a dedicated session.

Presentation of Morocco’s clean fuel production roadmap

Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), the MENA-Fuels research project provides orientation knowledge for projects that envisage the MENA region as a resource supplier for synthetic fuels. The green production and transport of electricity, hydrogen, intermediate products or fuels from the MENA region are evaluated with an in-depth analysis carried out as part of three country-case studies in the MENA region. During the on-line presentation of Morocco’s clean fuel road map, Sahara Wind introduced its activities supporting the country’s green hydrogen production modeling with various scenario analyses.

Sahara Wind’s scaled-up access to desalinated water at the “Green Hydrogen Policies in the MENA Region” Workshop, June 22 2021

Organized by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, this regional workshop on Green Hydrogen Policies in the MENA region focused on three main topics. The State of the Art of Green Hydrogen Strategies, National Hydrogen Plans in MENA countries and Potential Hydrogen-Water-Climate Nexus in the MENA region. Green hydrogen consumes 1000 times more electricity than what is required to desalinate water as its electrolysis feedstock. Critical to power the region’s desalination plants, “Green Hydrogen Scaling-up Access to Desalinated Water: Case Study of the Sahara Wind HVDC Transmission Project” was presented last, concluding the workshop. This online event brought together senior regional and international experts.

Round table on "The Morocco - European Union relationship in the light of the crisis with Spain" June 2, 2021

Organized by the Amadeus Institute a virtual round table under the theme "The Morocco - European Union relationship in the light of the crisis with Spain" was held in Rabat, Morocco. Moderated by Khalid Benhamou, CEO of Sahara Wind, this event saw the participation of prominent political and academic figures from Europe and Morocco.

Morocco’s “GreenH2 Cluster” Constituent Assembly, March 18 2021

The Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Industry of the kingdom of Morocco hosted the cluster’s Constitutive General Assembly in Rabat. This event gathered major players in the creation of a hydrogen industry. The GreenH2 Cluster seeks to support an emerging, competitive Green Hydrogen sector in Morocco. The cluster will focus on the development and industrialization of green hydrogen and encourage research with relevant stakeholders. One of the cluster’s biggest missions is to encourage the transfer of know-how between Moroccan and international partners.

Sahara Wind's 5-10GW HVDC transmission project presented at the 5th RENPOWER MAGHREB INVESTORS 2020

Complementing Green Hydrogen applications and Africa's 1st Wind-Hydrogen system launched in 2012, the phased roll-out of the Sahara Wind 5-10GW HVDC line has been presented during Session 5 on ‘Regionally interconnected transmission grid, distributed generation and export’. Held Online from December 15-16, the 5th edition of the RENPOWER MAGHREB INVESTORS 2020 Conference assessed the region’s Renewable Energy, Power Infrastructures and Energy Efficiency projects. This event brought together key policy, energy and finance stakeholders from the Maghreb and beyond.

Morocco hosts the 1st World Power-to-X Summit, December 1-3 2020

Pioneered by Sahara Wind as a regional platform dedicated to Green Hydrogen and its applications, the WorldPtXSummit™ triggered high-level discussions aimed at fostering new clean energy partnerships. Organized by IRESEN and the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), this virtual Summit gathered major investors, policy makers, innovators, industry leaders and research experts. Recordings of this event are available, with a full description at www.worldptxsummit.com.

Sahara Wind at the MEDaysTalks, November 10-17 2020

Substituting the annual MEDays ‘Forum of the South’ of the Institut Amadeus in Tangier, Morocco, an exceptional on-line MEDaysTalks 2020 gathered over 100 high-level panelists amongst which several former heads of governments and 40 000 participants. Held under the theme ‘In the wake of Covid-19: responses, recovery and disruptions’, several sessions have been moderated by Khalid Benhamou, CEO of Sahara Wind.  Available for viewing, these can be accessed below.

Signature of an agreement for the construction of a first industrial plant for "green" hydrogen in Morocco on 10.06.2020 in Berlin

Upon unveiling its €9 Billion National Hydrogen Strategy, Germany selects Morocco for developing the first industrial plant for "green hydrogen" in Africa. Hydrogen is key for decarbonising steel and chemical industries as well as the transport sector. As Morocco imports over 1 Million ton of grey ammonia to support its global phosphate-based fertilizer industry, an opportunity arises to produce green hydrogen for ammonia synthesis from renewables, mostly wind energy. A Memorandum of understanding has been signed between the two governments to support this project.

Sahara Wind's HVDC scale-up of Africa-Europe’s interconnection presented at the 'Horizon 2050 HVDC technologies' Workshop in Brussels, February 4th 2020

At the invitation of the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy, Sahara Wind participated in the ‘Horizon 2050 power system and the role of HVDC technologies in a highly decentralised RES generation’ Workshop in Brussels. Based on actual developments grid operators and HVDC industry experts assessed the potentialities of applying further DC technologies in the existing electricity grid. As part of these prospects, the Sahara Wind project HVDC scale-up of Africa-Europe’s interconnection was presented during the ‘HVDC developments – perspective / implementation projects EEPR CEF PCI’ morning session. The latter was followed by a lively discussion on the future architecture of the EU’s highly decentralized Renewable Energy System generation, integrating DC transmission technologies and HVDC networks on a regional scale.