Renewable Energy in Morocco: a promising market

Renewable Energy in Morocco: a promising market
Among the Northern African countries, Morocco is the country which is extremely
dependent on energy imports and fossil fuels. More than 95% of Moroccan energy
needs are met by the import. At the meanwhile, the country has abundant renewable
energy resources such as wind and solar. Developing renewable energy is a main
priority for the public authorities, which is projecting to achieve energy security,
sustainable development and job creation by investing in renewable energy. Morocco is
planning to become with Algeria and Tunisia an energy platform between Africa and
Europe. Morocco has already transmission interconnection with Europe. This makes
exporting green electricity possible without further intensive investment.
In terms of wind energy resources, Morocco has an excellent wind potential, mainly in
the North and in the South with an annual average wind speed between 7 m/s and 8.5
m/s in the South, and between 8 m/s and 11 m/s in the North, especially in the Atlantic
coastal regions and the Taza corridor to the interior [1]. Morocco is aiming at attaining
1000 MW capacity installed wind farms by 2012. Few wind farms are already operating
in the regions of Tangier, Tetouan and Essaouira. Other projects are being developed in
the south and north of the country.
Morocco is actively promoting build-operate-transfer (BOT) and independent power
project (IPP) contracts, which seek to award long-term agreements to private sector
actors. The country has opted for a competitive bidding process to get a competitive
tariff rate [2].
Morocco has also an excellent Solar potential: 4,7 - 5,7 kWh/day (2800 hours/year in the
North, and more than 3000 hours/year in the South [3]. This huge potential could be
exploited to supply abundant and cost effective green energy. Moroccan government
has established a national fund for developing renewable power and energy efficiency (1
billion $US), and has launched a US$ 9 billion solar projects, that involves building five
solar power generation sites across the country to meet its goal of producing 2,000
megawatts of electricity by 2020 [3]. Five sites have been identified for the launch of this
project; Ouarzazate, Ain Bni Mathar, Foum Al Oued, Boujdour and Sebkhat Tah. This
plan will integrate all the value chain of solar energy, starting from local manufacturing,
services and related training and research activities in order to boost economic growth
and job generation.
The Moroccan Solar Plan has synergy with other initiatives that promotes the
development of renewable energy in the North Africa such as the Mediterranean Solar
Plan, Desertec Industry Initiative and Medgrid.
The first solar project will be developed in Ouarzazate; it has a total capacity of 500 MW,
and the first part concerns 160 MW. The dimension of the first project is very large,
many actors are involved both in financing the project and in the technical assistance.
This may delay the start of the project; however, this public private partnership may be
developed and become a business model for other renewable energy projects in
Morocco and in all the Northern African Countries. The project site is located 10 Km in
the North of the city of Ouarzazate, and has a total area of 33 km². The selected
technology for this project will be CSP; it will be one of the largest solar CSP plants
worldwide. This project has a big size and does involve high risks in the initial stages
since the technology cost is still relatively high.
To finance this project, grants non refundable were granted by the EU, in addition to
loans from the Africa Development Bank (AFDB), World Bank (WB), Agence Française
de développement, and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. These international financial
institutions are working together to promote renewable energy in the North Africa, and
will assist Morocco in this framework. The world bank states that this initiative of
promoting renewable energy in this region will include a wide ranges of donors and
promote a mix of private and public investments.
The CSP technology is still expensive and Morocco can afford the high cost only by
exporting electricity. Nevertheless, for the first phase of 160 MW, Morocco is aiming at
adopting concessional financing to start the project. The Clean Technology Fund has
already approved a loan of $197 million to finance this project [4]. AFDB is also
committed to participate in financing this project. The WB as well will finance this project
by providing $200 million loan.
References :
1. Agence de Développement des Energies Renouvelables et de l'Efficacité Energétique
-Aderee- (2009) www.aderee.ma last visit June 1s, 2011
2. Malgas, I., Gratwick, K. N. et al. (2007) ‘Moroccan Independent Power Producers: African
Pioneers', Journal of North African Studies 13 (1): 15-36.
3. Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy -Masen- (2011) (http://www.masen.org.ma/) Last visit
December 23rd, 2011
4. World Bank (2011) http://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org Last visit December 22nd, 2011

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