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Midway through a conversation with Saïd Mouline last week, the director of Morocco’s Agency for the Development of Renewable Energy, it became clear that building the region’s alternative capacity meant much more than just cleaner energy.
Faced with a dramatically different economic and political landscape than just a year ago, Mouline and the Moroccan government in Rabat have set out to not only establish themselves as green energy leaders in the Mediterranean, but possibly even use that new focus to shift the balance of influence in the region.
To be clear, the country’s initial embrace of renewable energy is rooted firmly in the country’s lopsided dependence on foreign energy. While sharing the North African coast with some of the continent’s largest oil and gas producers, Morocco is left to import 95 percent of its energy needs, putting it in a precarious situation where energy prices can, and have, skyrocketed overnight.
Starting a few years ago, the Moroccan government got serious about building the country’s renewable capacity to help meet domestic demand and tap into growing interest from Europe for new energy sources. Frustrated with space constraints and resource uncertainty, Europe had begun exploring the idea of tapping into North Africa’s solar and wind potential with proposals for sprawling projects meant to cushion EU demand and help countries reach 20 percent by 2020 renewable goals. In Morocco, this was followed by government energy efficiency campaigns and funding for renewable projects, setting a 42 percent renewable goal by 2020.
Anchored by a $9 billion solar plan announced in 2009, the country’s renewable path was meant to both establish the country as a green leader in North Africa and remove the threat of price fluctuations brought on by its dependence on imports. And until recently, that was limit of the country’s energy outlook. Hardly modest, but that was where it seemed to end.
However, as Rabat watched North Africa undergo the deep political and economic evolution of last year, Morocco’s renewable energy potential took on a new importance. With new governments in place in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, long-delayed partnerships in the region seemed suddenly possible. Proposed trading blocs that had sat in limbo for decades were brought up for discussion again. In late January, Algeria even welcomed their first official visitor from Rabat since 2003 with the arrival of Morocco’s foreign minister.
For energy purposes – both traditional and otherwise – an economically unified North Africa would give them a stronger hand to play when it came to producing and exporting energy to the European market. Planning and investment efforts could focus on local priorities, like domestic job creation and energy needs in Fez, not just Madrid. By offering up a more cohesive energy production effort in the Maghreb, energy actors like Mouline reasoned, the area could have more say about funding, revenue sharing and sustainability. The shift would, they hoped, give North Mediterranean energy consumers more of a stake in the South’s overall wellbeing, moving away from the long-standing focus on security and oil.
“By developing green energy, we are creating solutions for Europe – not just economic but social solutions for the future,” he told me last week. As recently as last year, oil and gas firms in the region came under fire from local governments and community leaders for a lack of attention for job training and support.
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard the sentiment. Earlier in the week, members of a project team at a Barcelona-based think tank focused on the future of renewable energy in the Mediterranean said the feeling was widespread. With new governments in place, they thought there was real potential for building new projects and funding agreements around North African priorities, not just EU sustainability goals and cheaper prices for Europe. Pitching projects from Tangiers to Cairo would need to start with meeting local needs and move out from there.Education, jobs, research and development for in-country workers and students would need to accompany any new projects.
Or at least, that’s what they are hoping will happen. In practice, that sort of influence through renewable energy could be a long way off. Will Pearson, an energy analyst at the Eurasia Group offered that the kind of development necessary to get the European market on board would first require dealing with issues of transport infrastructure and funding thanks to the economic restrictions in Europe, both of which are unlikely to be remedied in the near future.
For now, it’s far too early to see how keen new governments in Tunis and Tripoli will be to partner up as the economic realities of funding a newly open state become clear. Despite a pledge for twice-a-year meetings between foreign ministers, Algeria and Morocco still face two decades of closed borders and disputes over the Western Sahara that show little sign of fading. Plus, existing projects are already taking shape in some communities over others, highlighting the difference in progress between the various Maghreb states when it comes to renewable development.
For now, Mouline and other renewable energy proponents in the region have plenty to keep them busy while new and existing government try to find ways to break down the obstacles that have kept efforts like the Arab Maghreb Union dormant for so long. In addition to stepping up support for coalition projects like Desertec, Morocco’s government and Mouline’s Agency for the Development of Renewable Energy have launched a series of localized efforts to promote both efficiency and renewable solutions. The projects will be explored further in later posts.
