The page below gives an overview of the energy sector in Mauritania.

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MAURITANIA ENERGY SECTOR OVERVIEW

Population: 4.4 million | GDP (1): $5.23 billion

The Government of Mauritania (GOM) is working to expand its electricity supply and encourage investment in the renewable energy sector to stimulate the economy with the aim of reaching universal access by 2030. 

Towards that aim, the GOM is focused on the following:

• Increase of new production capacity from local resources, mainly natural gas;
• Increasing the share of renewable energies in the energy mix, target of 60% by 2021
• Development of the transmission network and interconnections with neighboring countries;
• Implementation of decentralized solutions in isolated areas.

With respect to the first two areas of focus, Mauritania is endowed with substantial renewable energy resources, in particular solar, wind, and hydro, as well as natural gas reserves. Due to its extensive coastline, Mauritania is especially well positioned to exploit wind power if it can manage the intermittent nature of wind power. Despite the potential of wind and solar, the majority of its existing capacity comes from HFO generation and diesel generation. 

With respect to the third and fourth areas of focus, Mauritania currently exports electricity and has high potential for cross border export, despite the fact that the majority of the population is unserved. Serving power to rural communities is especially challenging as they are dispersed populations in remote areas. GOM plans provide electricity access to all localities of more than 500 inhabitants by both expanding transmission lines and offering decentralized mini-grid solutions to permanently isolated localities. 

There are no independent power producers (IPPs) in Mauritania, Mauritania has one state-owned electricity utility: SOMELEC. 

Mauritania boasts high resource potential and opportunities for cross-border export, and the government must increase access to financing, update the grid network, and create a more stable regulatory and tariff structure to encourage investment.

Sources

1. https://data.worldbank.org/country/mauritania
2. https://www.africa-energy.com/database/datatool
3. https://www.iea.org/reports/sdg7-data-and-projections/access-to-electricity