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Morocco : Morocco emerges as a leader in the Middle East on renewable energy
Publish Date : 08-Jun-2016
In regards with its renewable energy capacity, Morocco has emerged as the standard bearer on the global stage for the Middle East region, thanks to the scale of its concentrated solar power (CSP) projects.
In its 2016 report of the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), Morocco in 2015 led the world in terms of investment and added capacity in concentrated solar power (CSP). At the end of 2015, in terms of overall capacity, the country still stood behind Spain, the United States and India, but its ongoing investment could soon push it up the rankings.
In February 2016, Morocco inaugurated the Noor 1 CSP plant which is claimed to be the largest such plant in the Middle East and North Africa and indeed the continent developed by Saudi Arabias ACWA Power.
In 2012, along with 5% Spanish partners ARIES and TSC, ACWA Power, had secured a contract worth around $1bn contract for construction of the 160MW CSP plant near the desert frontier town of Ouarzazate, Morocco.
The Saudi energy company fended off bids from three other groups, to include Abu Dhabis national energy company TAQA, by offering operational energy price 27% lower than the nearest bidder.
In the Noor 1 CSP plant, a range of 12m-high parabolic mirrors are focussed on a steel pipeline which carry a heat transfer solution (HTF) that is warmed to 393C then mixed with water to create steam that turns energy-generating turbines.
The Noor 1 project had secured $1bn in funding from The World Bank, along with the African Development Bank and Climate Investment Funds (CIF), who expect the sheer scale of the Noor project to lower the overall cost of CSP.
The World Bank said, two subsequent phases, Noor 2 and Noor 3, will see capacity at the site expanded by 350MW to over 500MW, and lower the costs of CSP by 25% and 10%, respectively.
