The first 1.5GW phase of the Dakhla project, in the disputed Western Sahara territory, is targeting exports to Northern Europe.
A satellite image of the Dakhla peninsula, including the city and port (off the southern coast), taken in 2021.
Local developer Dahamco says it is ready to invest 40bn Moroccan dirhams ($4bn) in the first 1.5GW phase of its 254bn-dirham green hydrogen and ammonia project on the Dakhla peninsula in the disputed Western Sahara region of southern Morocco.
“As of today, its design is fully completed, co-investors have been mobilised, and the market outlets are clearly defined,” company president Tom Hanson told a local newspaper. “We have been ready to move forward for some time now.”
Dakhla-headquartered Dahamco has already received all the necessary permits from Moroccan authorities for the project, with the first phase due to produce one million tonnes of green ammonia a year.
“If we can finalize the missing project agreement by the first quarter of 2025 at the latest, we will be able to achieve commercial operation by 2031, provided there are no new delays,” Hanson told Moroccan French-language newspaper Le Matin, presumably a reference to a contract with an offtaker.
Due to the excellent wind and solar resources at Dakhla, “we can produce [green ammonia] at a cost acceptable to our customers”, said the Belgian, pointing out that it is targeting exports to the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region in the Netherlands/Belgium.
“We conducted a 25-year simulation based on historical wind and solar date — we are confident in our ability to overcome this challenge [of intermittency] through a tailored plant design.
Dahamco plans to deliver subsequent phases of the $25.5bn project at intervals of four to five years, as long as there is sufficient demand.
“We are confident there will be significant demand if the price remains affordable,” Hanson stated.
Dakhla is a city of more than 100,000 people on a sandy peninsula (the word Dakhla literally means “The Peninsular” in Arabic) on the west coast of the Moroccan administrative region Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab.
Moroccans consider the region to be an integral part of Morocco, but it is situated in the Western Sahara, which is listed as a non self-governing territory by the UN. It is claimed to be an independent nation by the Sahrawi people, who are in de facto control of the easternmost one-fifth of the territory.
The Moroccan government is building a €1.2bn ($1.27bn) “megaport” on the Dakhla peninsula, through which Dahamco hopes to export its green ammonia.