John Cockerill plans electrolyser factory in Morocco

John Cockerill, the Belgian mechanical engineering company and alkaline electrolyser specialist, last week unveiled a joint venture agreement aimed at the creation of a gigafactory for the production of electrolysers in Morocco.

The agreement is with an unnamed “leading Moroccan energy company” and will include an alkaline electrolyser manufacturing plant. The facility, which will be the first of its kind in Africa, will produce high-powered alkaline electrolysers of above 5 MW.

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The joint venture will offer integrated green hydrogen solutions. The Belgian firm said that together with its partner it will develop a value chain for green hydrogen production in Morocco, helping the local large industries to establish a national energy ecosystem focused on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

“Just like the Kingdom's great successes in the aerospace and automotive industries, we are determined to establish such a local ecosystem around hydrogen technologies together," commented Raphael Tilot, executive chairman John Cockerill Hydrogen.

John Cockerill says it accounted for 33% of global electrolyser shipments in 2021 with almost 200 MW of sales. In 2022, the company delivered 120 MW of electrolysers to Sinopec for what is the world’s largest photovoltaic-hydrogen plant, located in Xinjiang province.