GE Vernova is under heavy pressure to depart occupied Western Sahara. This is according to news service Africa Intelligence today. 

GE's subsidiary GE Vernova announced on 31 January 2024 that it had partnered with Morocco's national agency for electricity and water (ONEE) and the Moroccan king's energy firm Nareva in a green hydrogen project in the occupied territory. The three partners had committed to undertaking an assessment to decarbonise the 99 MW “Laâyoune” Thermal Power Plant, which is equipped with three GE Vernova 6B heavy-duty gas turbines and runs on heavy fuel oils. Under the plan, one of GE Vernova’s 6B gas turbines is to be converted to run entirely on hydrogen. 

GE Vernova told in its initial press release that the deal was near “Laayoune” in “Morocco”. El Aaiún, as it is really spelled, is not located in Morocco at all, but in Western Sahara, under Moroccan occupation. 

Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) wrote a letter to the company on 5 February 2024, inquiring how the firm relates to the people of Western Sahara's right to self-determination and to the principles of international law that apply to the specific case of the territory. A few hours after sending the letter, GE Vernova's press release was removed from the company's website.

According to Africa Intelligence, something else is said to have happened those days in early 2024: The Algerian government started exercising pressure.  

"Immediately after it had been announced in early 2024 that the parties had reached agreement, the Algerian authorities warned the US giant that the project risked jeopardising future partnerships between GE and Sonatrach, which is still Africa's biggest industrial group. GE has a close relationship with the Algerian group and its subsidiary, Sonelgaz", Africa Intelligence writes today. 

In parallel, WSRW knows that several of GE Vernova's investors have raised the matter with the company - the problem, naturally, being that many financial institutions are sensitive to matters of international law. The Court of Justice of the EU in October this year passed yet another three rulings that underline that Western Sahara is not part of Morocco, and that EU agreements with the territory therefore cannot include the territory. 

In July, GE Vernova secured a major order for equipment to Algeria. WSRW does not know what this means in terms of GE Vernova's contract in the occupied territory. According to Africa Intelligence, GE Vernova denied that it had plans to withdraw from the project in Western Sahara. No news about the matter is posted on the company website.

In April, news surfaced that GE Vernova had invested in Xlinks, a problematic project that is to connect south Morocco to the UK through a transmission cable. WSRW has for several years, without success, sought guarantees from Xlinks that Western Sahara will not be affected through connection to the grid that is to export energy to the UK.

GE Vernova emerged as a spin-off from three different General Electric businesses in 2024, one of which was GE Renewable Energy. 

GE Renewable Energy announced in a press release on 30 September 2021 that it had received a large contract for the installation of the 200 MW "Aftissat 2" wind park in Western Sahara. In February 2021, the company had been contracted for the delivery of two substations to the 300 MW Boujdour wind farm - described in the company's press release as located in “the south of Morocco”. The substations will evacuate power from the Boujdour farm and from "renewable energy projects in neighbouring communities, as well as connect it to the national grid of Morocco". In May 2023, the construction of the Aftissat 2 wind farm was about to be completed. In 2015, General Electric acquired the power and grid business of the French company Alstom. The latter's equipment and operations have several times been seen in the occupied territory. 

WSRW wrote to GE Renewable Energy on 05.10.2021, 10.11.2021 and 15.05.2023 and has to this point only received this response of 20.10.2021. WSRW also contacted Alstom on 02.07.2013 and 08.12.2020, and only got a response on 17.07.2013.
 

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