US energy policy took a sharp U-turn after President Donald Trump returned to office last year, but it’s a big world out there. Global investors and clean tech innovators keep working their way into the US, and the pipeline is reciprocal. Take the massive new green hydrogen project under way in Morocco, for example. It’s getting an assist from US stakeholders in the private sector, which is no surprise. What is surprising is a key contribution from the Trump administration. A Tiny Contribution To A Massive Hydrogen Project The contribution from the US government comes in a form of a modest grant to the Moroccan joint venture ORNX through the US Trade and Development Agency, an independent agency of the federal government permanently authorized by Congress in 1961. In a press release dated July 28, USTDA notes that the funds are earmarked for preliminary studies leading to a “large-scale ammonia production plant in Morocco’s southern provinces.” Considering the current state of US energy policy, it would be reasonable to assume that the ammonia in question is produced the traditional way, by combining nitrogen with hydrogen squeezed out of natural gas. In some parts of the world, notably China, coal also plays a role in the hydrogen supply chain. However, this particular project is not a conventional ammonia project. It is a green ammonia project, in which nitrogen will be combined with hydrogen jolted from water in electrolyzer systems. The green loop is complete when electricity from renewable resources is the power source for the electrolysis process, and Morocco has a copious amount of wind and solar at hand. USTDA does not spell out g-r-e-e-n h-y-d-r-o-g-e-n for the press, but the agency does specify that the grant is earmarked to study electrolyzer technology developed by the Massachusetts firm Electric Hydrogen, a green hydrogen startup that first appeared on the CleanTechnica radar back in 2022. Last year, Electric Hydrogen surfaced again with a plan to bring its electrolyzers to Europe. Now the company has its sights set on Morocco. USTDA did not mention the amount of the grant in its press release, but Reuters has it along with some of the geopolitical backstory. The grant of $5.7 million is a drop in the bucket, relatively speaking. However, it does provide the Trump administration with another intervention in a territory dispute between Morocco and the Algeria-supported organization Polisario Front, involving the region where the new hydrogen facility is to be located. Back in 2020, the President supported Morocco in its claim of sovereignty over the region. The grant award not the only recent indication that Trump is seeking to build up the US footprint — and his name, specifically — in Morocco. “The funding was announced days after Morocco named a $1 billion highway in Western Sahara after U.S. President Donald Trump,” Reuters also reported. In case there are any lingering doubts about the Trump administration’s intentions towards Morocco, Reuters also reported that US Ambassador Duke Buchan III exclaimed “America is in the Moroccan Sahara” at a signing ceremony for the official handover of the grant. More Green Hydrogen For Morocco The government of Morocco has been eyeballing the potential to ship green hydrogen to markets in Europe and elsewhere around the world through its “Morocco Offer” green hydrogen investment plan. In March of 2025, Morocco tapped several consortia to develop six green hydrogen projects across three southern regions, with a focus mainly on green hydrogen deployment in the ammonia field along with a lesser role for e-fuels and green steel. Overall, the total investment was pegged at 319 billion dirhams (almost $87 billion USD). Aside from the USTDA grant, another US connection appears in one of the selected consortia. The multinational joint venture ORNX is tasked with developing one of the ammonia projects, to be constructed in Laâyoune. The location within the disputed region may complicate matters, but if all goes according to plan the facility will produce 560,000 tons ammonia per year. The ORNX joint venture consists of the Spanish firm Acciona, Nordex of Germany, and Ortus Power Resources Morocco, a branch of the firm Ortus Climate Mitigation. Though Ortus operates globally with offices in Italy and the UK as well as Morocco, a US address has also appeared in the records relating to its US ventures. Additionally, Co-founders and Co-CEOs Peter A. Gish and Anna Halpern-Landealso both have roots in the US climate tech scene. Follow The Money The materials describing the Laâyoune hydrogen project mainly refer to it as a “low-cost” hydrogen rather than using the word “green.” The choice of words is of interest, considering that the high cost of green hydrogen has been a critical obstacle against widespread uptake. The cost barrier is beginning to wear thin, partly on account of the falling cost of renewable energy, and partly due to efficiency improvements in electrolyzer tehnology. Electric Hydrogen (aka EH2) is among the innovators also focusing on cutting the cost of manufacturing electrolyzers, too. So far EH2 has raised more than $700 million from Microsoft, Breakthrough Energy, HSBC, Amazon, Equinor, United Airlines, Honeywell, and Mitsubishi among others. Of note, the leading oil and gas producer bp has also piled on. The total includes a $46.3 million grant issued to EH2 by the US Department of Energy in 2024, funded by the Clean Electrolysis Program of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The award was earmarked for supporting the company’s cost-cutting manufacturing systems, with a focus on its factory in Devens, Massachusetts. I’ll touch base with EH2 for an update on dispersal of the funding. If all goes according to plan, the Devens facility will reach a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts per year in PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolyzers, making it among the largest facilities of of its kind globally. “Using proven manufacturing frameworks from successfully scaled industries like the auto industry, it will run low-cost and high-throughput production lines to make reliable and high-quality electrolyzers in large volumes to meet the industry’s growing demand,” EH2 explained in a press statement dated March 14, 2024. EH2 is active in the US, though the prospects for near-term growth are much more attractive elsewhere around the world. Recent moves by another US startup, Plug Power, are instructive in that regard. Plug Power has reportedly sold off multiple sites in the US where plans for green hydrogen projects were in the works, but it is moving forward with opportunities elsewhere, one example being the proposed Barrow hydrogen project at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in the UK. The Barrow project achieved FID in May, bringing Plug another step closer to filling an order for 30 megawatts’ worth of its GenCo PEM. Once completed the new plant will help shave 50% off the use of gas by a Kimberly-Clark factory located nearby. Image: Morocco is pursuing plans for a massive green hydrogen operation, with a focus on producing green ammonia for global markets (courtesy of ORNX).
