By the year 2030, Morocco will have invested $40 billion in projects aiming to develop the energy sector. The country’s ambitious strategy seeks to derive 50% of its energy needs from renewable sources by the same year.
This was at a recent forum in Bahrain’s capital, Manama. The forum’s main focus was on the latest developments in the renewable energy sector.
The Minister of Energy, Aziz Rabbah said that the Kingdom has been able to turn its challenges into investment opportunities. This was through its commitment to projects whose aim is developing the energy sector by 2030. Additionally, 75% of these projects are towards renewable energies.
The energy minister highlighted the fruitful results of Morocco’s energy transition noting that the share of wind and solar power in electricity production reached 30% of overall energy output in the country in 2016.
Morocco’s energy transition
Minister Rabbah further recalled that in 2016, the Noor 1 solar complex began operating with a capacity of 160MW and a storage for 3 hours of low-light producing capacity.
The Noor project, which was developed by Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power and Spanish firms Sener SA and Acciona SA, is estimated to have a total capacity of 2GW by 2020 once all four units have reached completion.
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He also made a conclusion by pointing to the country’s efforts to strengthen the electricity interconnection with neighbouring countries.
He made reference of the Morocco-Portugal project which is currently under study. It has a capacity of 1,000MW. The project of a third interconnection of 700MW with Spain, including other projects with sub-Saharan countries.
