Israel's H2Pro will provide electrolysers to Moroccan green hydrogen projects developed by domestic renewables firm Gaia Energy, and may eventually begin manufacturing in the north African country.
H2Pro and Gaia signed a "strategic agreement" at the Cop 27 UN climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, setting out multiple areas of co-operation.
Gaia will initially use H2Pro electrolysers with capacity in a range of 10-20MW "for a demo project in Morocco", the Israeli firm said. Gaia will explore the use of H2Pro's technology on a "gigawatt-scale" for larger projects it is planning, H2Pro said.
H2Pro aims to investigate the feasibility of building a gigafactory for electrolyser production in Morocco to enable local manufacturing of the technology, according to Gaia.
H2Pro is developing electrochemical-thermally activated chemical electrolyser systems. These use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen like traditional electrolysis, but the reactions happen in separate steps that allow the equipment to operate without a membrane. H2Pro has said its technology can achieve efficiency rates of around 95pc, reducing the costs of hydrogen production compared with more conventional electrolysers. Best-in-class alkaline or proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers — the most established technologies — reach efficiency rates of around 80pc, and Danish manufacturer Topsoe has said its solid-oxide technology can be operated at 90pc efficiency.
Morocco is widely regarded as a prime location for renewable hydrogen production. It offers ample wind and solar power generation capacity, while its proximity to Europe — and particularly an existing gas pipeline connection to Spain — provides it with easy access to a key export market.
