Big plans by Morocco’s OCP: Moroccan state-owned fertilizer and phosphate giant OCP Group plans to invest USD 7 bn in an ammonia plant using green hydrogen produced from renewable energy, company representatives told Reuters. The plan comes under efforts by the fertilizers giant to boost output and shift to renewable energy.

What does OCP have up its sleeves? OCP said it plans to build an ammonia plant with a production capacity of 200k tons of ammonia annually in southern Morocco’s Tarfaya. Its production capacity would later grow fivefold to reach 1 mn tons by 2027, and increase further to reach 3 mn tons over the next decade. The state-owned company will use hydrogen produced by solar and wind-powered electrolysis under a USD 13 bn strategy announced late last year for a switch to renewables.

And there’s more in the pipeline: OCP said it will fully rely on desalinated water for industrial operations by 2027, with plans to launch tenders in early 2024 to boost desalination capacity at its Safi and Jorf Lasfar projects. Its planned project in Tarfaya includes a renewable-energy powered desalination plant with a production capacity of 60 mn cubic meters a year to supply the industrial complexes.

OCP has been on a renewables kick: The IFC approved a green loan worth EUR 100 mn to Moroccan state-owned fertilizer and phosphate giant OCP Group earlier this year to help finance the development of four solar plants yielding 202 MW.

REMEMBER- Morocco has been pushing with efforts to position itself as a clean energy hub for renewable energy due to its major solar and wind resources. Renewables would account for 50-52% of Morocco’s energy mix by 2030, up from a current 38%, Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch said earlier this year. Its wind and solar resources have the potential to make the North African country one of the cheapest providers of renewables in the world, Akhannouch said, and can be used to fuel the country’s green hydrogen ambitions.