Green Hydrogen

MAURITANIA

PROJECT NOUR

Chariot’s green hydrogen project, “Project Nour”, spans two onshore areas totalling approx. 5,000km², across northern Mauritania; a location that takes advantage of the wide scale wind and solar potential, important for large-scale renewable energy generation and low-cost hydrogen production.

Project Nour is equally owned through a 50/50 partnership between Chariot’s fully owned subsidiary Chariot Green Hydrogen and TotalEnergies H2 (TEH2), a company co-owned by TotalEnergies and the EREN Group, and is being developed with the support of Mauritania’s Ministry of Petroleum, Energy and Mines. The Feasibility Study has been completed which confirmed the project’s world class potential, outlining the first phase planning of domestic offtake and export development.

Key highlights:

• Further definition of the scale and viability of the project, building on the Pre-Feasibility Study completed in 2022 which confirmed that with up to 10 GW of electrolysis installed, Project Nour could become one of the largest green hydrogen projects globally
• Intention to execute a phased development with a first phase renewable capacity of 3 GW, powering up to 1.6 GW of electrolysis capacity, to produce 150 kt of green hydrogen per annum
• Offtake possibilities: domestic use for green steel production and export of green ammonia – Nour provides a unique opportunity to tie a giga-scale green H2 project to a green steel offtaker – combining Mauritania’s power-to-X potential with the country’s longstanding iron ore industry
• Geographical proximity to Europe and existing deep-sea port at Nouadhibou provides favorable export options
• Sustainable economic development with local content plan aimed at maximizing employment and business opportunities in Mauritania
• Completed in compliance with Equator Principles and IFC Performance Standards
• Next steps include completion of investment framework, engineering conceptual study and offtake negotiations

THE MARKET OPPORTUNITY

Green hydrogen, created by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy, has a material role to play in reaching net zero climate targets. Currently around 95% of hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels so there will be a significant transition across this sector and demand will continue to grow as the energy mix changes. There are a range of hard-to-abate sectors which currently utilise a substantial proportion of grey hydrogen but an emphasis is being placed on three key industries – steel making, fertiliser production and power fuels for transportation (including shipping and aviation); all of which Chariot is looking to address within the projects we are working on.

GREEN IRON PELLET PROJECT

Chariot’s green hydrogen team are also working on scoping a green iron pellet project utilising direct reduced iron (DRI) technology powered by green hydrogen. Whilst smaller in scale, it aligns with the Government of Mauritania’s ambitions to transform its mining sector into a green iron powerhouse and the team are in talks with various development finance institutions around potential grant funding for the project.