Morocco started off the week by announcing a solar energy project with an estimated cost of about $9 billion. The project will account for 38% of the country’s installed power generation when complete in 2020. It will involve five solar power generation sites across the country producing 2,000 MW, according to Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra. Morocco’s power utility ONE Chairman Ali Fassi Fihri said the project would make the country a pioneer in renewable energy generation.
Funding would be from a mix of private and state capital, Benkhadra added.
Morocco has significant gas reserves, but is not as naturally endowed as many of its North African oil-rich neighbors like Libya, Algeria, and Egypt.
"This is a bold but realistic project. We will guarantee all the technical and financial resources to make it succeed," Benkhadra said, adding that foreign energy operators would be involved in the project. "We look for the most sophisticated technology available in the world to use for this project," she said, but gave no date when the tenders would be launched for the solar scheme.