Seawater and solar power for green hydrogen in Africa
Africa holds a production potential for green hydrogen estimated at one trillion euro. The figure comes from the report Africa’s Extraordinary Green Hydrogen Potential, published by the European Investment Bank, the International Solar Alliance and the African Union, with support from the government of Mauritania, HyDeal and UCLG Africa.
The document represents the first detailed research assessing the possible development of the energy carrier across the continent. It shows that by deploying 1,230 GW of new solar photovoltaic capacity, Africa could reach annual production of around 50 million tonnes of solar-based hydrogen by 2035.
The study analyses investment opportunities across four hubs, Mauritania, Morocco, Southern Africa and Egypt, and provides a roadmap of technical, economic, environmental and financial solutions to unlock commercial-scale development. This includes desalination plants to treat seawater for electrolysis and salt caverns for hydrogen storage.
The main objective is to demonstrate how to build a domestic market capable of meeting local demand at competitive costs, supporting economic growth and benefiting African communities. At the same time, it outlines how African countries could position themselves in the broader global market by exporting green hydrogen through pipelines and shipping routes to Europe, Japan and India.
“Africa has the most abundant solar energy in the world and transforming it into green hydrogen can strengthen energy security, reduce emissions and pollution and decarbonise industry and transport,” said Abdessalam Ould Mohamed Salah, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Mauritania. “The European Investment Bank is working with partners across Africa and globally to harness its renewable potential to produce low-cost green hydrogen at scale.”
Roadmap for commercialising green hydrogen across Africa
The research indicates that green hydrogen could be sold at around €1.55 to €1.90 per kilogram at delivery points, generating an average of €40 billion per year in direct gross domestic product, equivalent to roughly 5% of the GDP of the countries currently considered in the study.
“Solar photovoltaic technology has delivered the cheapest electricity,” explained Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General of the International Solar Alliance. “It will cost less than two euro per kilogram in several African countries by 2030 […] With this low-cost electricity and declining electrolyser costs, the next step is to provide access to a clean fuel that is cheaper than all current fossil fuels. It will enable us to decarbonise the energy sector and hard-to-abate sectors, fertilisers, steel production and refineries.”
To enable production of 50 million tonnes of green hydrogen in Africa by 2035, the report identifies three key requirements:
- The definition of national planning, regulatory and incentive programmes to mobilise private sector investment.
- The implementation of pilot projects demonstrating successful generation, storage, distribution and use of solar hydrogen at both demonstration and commercial scale.
- The creation of market-based partnerships to secure large-scale domestic and international offtake and demand for green hydrogen.
Without these enabling conditions, the continent’s significant renewable resource base may not fully translate into large-scale green hydrogen deployment.