EURACTIV.com
By Benjamin Fox
The solar thermal complex at Noor Ouarzazate in the Atlas mountains is at the heart of Morocco’s renewable energy drive, producing over 580MW of electricity. Mustapha Bakhouri explains the country’s plans to develop its renewable energy programme and build energy connections with Europe.
Mustapha Bakhouri is the president of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN). He spoke to EURACTIV’s Benjamin Fox.
The Moroccan government has set ambitious targets of increasing their share of energy from renewables to 42% in 2020 and a 52% share by 2030. Are these feasible targets?
Not only these targets are feasible, but we have the ambition to go beyond the levels set for 2030. As of today, production from renewables exceeds 35% with additional capacities under very advanced stages of development (NOOR Midelt Solar Complex, Koudia Al Baida and Taza wind farms) or under construction (Midelt Wind farm).
How much further can the Ouarzazate complex grow? How is the rest of Morocco’s sustainable energy ecosystem developing, and what is its impact on the wider economy?
Ouarzazate region has of course the potential to host additional solar capacities, subject to grid additional investments, however, Masen’s mandate is to develop the renewable energy ecosystem and create socio-economic development opportunities throughout the different regions of the country.
In this context, and in addition to Ouarzazate Complex, Masen has developed projects in the south of Morocco, in the Laayoune and Boujdour regions, in the North at Koudia Al Baida and Taza and the recent development of Midelt region.
Additional solar and wind projects will be shortly launched in the different areas of the country with the objective of creating local employment and economic activities directly or indirectly related to the power plants.
Morocco launches solar power plant dubbed as ‘largest in the world’
King Mohammed VI on Thursday (4 February) inaugurated Morocco’s first solar power plant, a massive project that the country sees as part of its goal of boosting its clean energy output.
You have talked about sustainable energy partnerships with sub-Saharan African countries? Can you give more detail about how these are progressing, and with which countries?
Masen is committed to share its experience in developing renewable energy projects with the objective of fostering renewable energy deployment in the continent. In this context, a dozen cooperation agreements have been signed with sub-Saharan African countries including Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Djibouti, Zambia, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Rwanda.
Masen’s action covers a large area of activities going from technical assistance in countries such as Rwanda where we are providing technical assistance, to project development in Zambia, Nigeria or Djibouti where we are co-developing renewable energy (RE) programs with local utilities.
In addition, Masen has joined forces with international institutions, such as the African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank to support a number of RE initiatives in Africa.
What plans are there to increase grid connectivity between Morocco and Europe? For example, last November your government and Portugal announced that a call for tenders on a $686 million, undersea 250km electricity cable connecting the two countries. How has this, and other initiatives moved forward?
Increasing grid connectivity between Morocco and Europe, through Spain and Portugal, is one of the key aspects that both sides will need to work on in the next few years, as these constitute bridges between Europe and Africa in electricity exchanges.
In fact, increasing electricity shares in both continents will, partly, rely on that parameter. On a directly related matter, it is worth noting that Morocco, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and the EU launched together, a few time ago, the SET Road Map initiative, which aims at facilitating the development of inter-country corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs), as a first step.
