WEST AFRICA – ECREEE has partnered with WASCAL to explore the potential of green hydrogen production from the enormous renewable energy sources within the West African region.
West Africa holds very good potential for producing green hydrogen and thus provides an opportunity for the region to play a key role in the emerging green hydrogen market according to the green hydrogen – H2 atlas project.
The atlas has been produced by the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use) (WASCAL) and its research partners.
In a meeting organized by the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) that seeks to create the roadmap for the development of an ECOWAS Green Hydrogen Policy.
The Policy document will be the first step toward aligning the regional and national government’s policies, legislative procedures, and guidelines in a systematic approach.
It aims at fostering greater public and private sector participation in the emerging green hydrogen economy.
The two-day meeting took the form of interactive sessions with presentations on hydrogen technology, uses, and policy perspectives from other parts and regions of the world.
The session involved technical experts as well as consultants discussing the crucial task of developing the ECOWAS green hydrogen policy.
The fifteen-member countries represented at the kick-off meeting shared their experiences, and perspectives and also admitted to challenges ahead in the quest for the production of green hydrogen in the ECOWAS region.
“ECREEE with WASCAL and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), are collaborating to explore the potentials of green hydrogen production from the enormous renewable energy sources within the West African region,” said Bah F.M. Saho, Acting Executive Director of ECREEE.
The development of a regional policy will have an implementation strategy to ensure that pilot projects are instituted within the region.
For the policy to effectively work, there is a need for the full participation of national focal institutions in member states in the development of what he described as ‘a novel policy’ in the region.
The joint effort comes at a time when hydrogen is emerging as one of the leading options for storing energy from renewables.
Hydrogen-based fuels have the potential to transport energy from renewables over long distances – from regions with abundant energy resources to energy-hungry areas thousands of kilometers away.
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