2023 - SAREP Conference

The birth of the SAREP Development Initiative

This event marked an important step on the way of making the SAREP vision reality. It was the first time to share the vision of the Sahara Renaissance Project with a broader audience.

Political leaders, decision makers, a wide range of experts from academia as well as experienced professionals shared their insights on the project´s economic feasibility, technical aspects of implementation as well as political cooperation. The event served as a platform for connecting with key technology partners, potential investors and other interested parties in order to identify potential modes of cooperation and to jointly form a SAREP project development initiative.

The conference agenda with the respective presentation slides will be available down below.

After a short welcome address of Prof. Dr. Klaus Helling, Prof. Dr. Peter Heck gave a detailed introduction into the project vision, explaining the project rationale and the synergies between the different project elements, which make it a business case for circular economy.

This was followed by a speech of Mr. Abdel Aziz Dahi, a former minister and former director of the central bank of Mauritania, who highlighted the importance of SAREP for Mauritania and the region. Subsequently, Mr. Mohamed Abdoullah Ebnou described the conditions for the on-site project implementation. Then, Dr. Ahmed Shazly, a representative of SEKEM, gave a short introduction in desert agriculture and the related carbon storage potential.

The highlights of the conference were the contributions of Nany Chrougha, the Mauritanian Minister of Petroleum, Energy and Mines and Fatimetou Abdel Malick, the President of the city of Nouakchott, who both expressed their appreciation of the project and their willingness to support it from the Mauritanian side.

Dr. Bettina Hübschen, from the Hydrogen Association of Saarland, gave an insight into the decarbonization needs of the German steel industry to which the industrial complex of the project could contribute. She described the project as ambitious, but definitely feasible. Dipl.-Ing. Joachim Käufler presented about the excellent technical potentials in Mauritania for seawater desalination powered by renewable energies and the intended off-grid approach. Afterwards, Bhushan Chaudhary gave an overview of Hydrogen production potentials and possible transport and production technologies.

Then, Dr. Gerhard Ohlde listed the plant species used for the projects tree shelterbelt and described the most important cultivation aspects. This was followed by a speech of Michiel Hillen, a representative of of Tijms Trading International B.V., who elaborated on agricultural machinery and drip irrigation systems. Afterwards, Rainer Kornhaas described the technical and economic aspects of onion production in the SAREP context and Dr. George Francis gave an insightful presentation about the cultivation and utilization of Jatropha curcas. Eventually, Niklas Mitterle gave an overview of the economic aspects of the agroforestry system as a whole.

Constantin Ekiermann explained the requirements for and the demand at the international carbon markets. Complementarily, Morimi Tokuyama described current policy trends on carbon trading and different certification schemes. Katharina Schlegel further defined quality criteria that are required for creating high-quality carbon removal certificates. After that, Henning Haskamp presented about the decarbonization needs of the global shipping sector, that mainly focuses on alternative biofuels. Lastly, Mathias Brandt closed the conference with a short introduction of the carbon alliance of Rhineland Palatinate.

After the conference, new offices for SAREP were inaugurated together with the Mauritanian partners and guests and it was agreed upon the further steps that are necessary for the project implementation.

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