MOROCCO– The kingdom’s National Office of electricity and drinking water (ONEE) and the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN), have signed the Boujdour Plant building contracts with the Moroccan Nareva Holding and Italy’s Enel Green Power consortium in Rabat.
The deal which features the development of a new wind farm in Boujdour, southern Morocco is part of its national strategy to promote utilization of renewable energy in the Maghreb country.
With construction work set to begin in 2021, the Boujdour project is the second project out of the five wind farms commissioned under the US$1.22 billion, 850 MW Integrated Wind Energy Project.
The wind projects are located in the city of Midelt (180 MW), Jbel Lahdid in Essaouira (200 MW), Tiskrad in Tarfaya (100 MW), and Tangier II (70 MW).
According to a joint statement from the ONEE and MASEN, the Boujdour wind farm will cost MAD4 billion (US$ 415 million) and will be located about 7 kilometers northeast of the city of Boujdour (Boujdour Province).
Once complete, the 850 MW Integrated Wind Energy Project will save Morocco approximately 2,380,000 tons CO2/year, equivalent to the consumption of a city the size of Casablanca, the statement concluded.
Morocco has an established national energy strategy, with the objective of sourcing 52% of the country’s electricity consumption from renewable energy by 2030.
According to Morocco’s Morocco’s Ministry of Energy, Mining, and Sustainable Development , the country’s reliance on foreign countries for electricity reduced from 98% to 92% thanks to the national energy strategy adopted in 2009.
The strategy seeks to reduce the country’s energy consumption levels, currently standing at an estimated at MAD 70 billion (about US$7.27 billion) per year
Morocco also aims to generate 42% of its electricity from renewable energies by 2020 and has invested heavily in solar energy to achieve this goal.
The Noor Ouarzazate project, the world’s 2nd largest solar plant and the soon to be constructed Noor Midelt are good examples of renewable energy projects currently being pursued by Morocco.
