By Bernd Radowitz in Berlin
Instructed by Germany’s environment and economic co-operation ministries, German development bank KfW has signed agreements to provide a €654m ($802m) loan for the construction of two solar plants at the Ouarzazate complex in Morocco.
The credit line is for a concentrated solar power (CSP) plants with a combined capacity of 350MW.
“For emerging countries such as Morocco that depend on fossil energy sources and imports to a high degree, the expansion of renewable energies is a prerequisite for sustainable development,” German environment minister Barbara Hendricks said.
The plants are part of Morocco’s target to build 2GW of solar and wind power each by 2020 and generate 42% of its electricity from renewable sources.
Developing CSP technology further at Ouarzazate and thus reach a cost degression of the technology can help with the transition of global energy systems towards renewables, the German ministries said.
The KfW loan for Ouarzazate had been uncertain after major Western lenders such as the KfW had been reported to have doubts about financing projects in the disputed Western Sahara region occupied by Morocco, but claimed by the indigenous Sahrawi people.
