The Moroccan government may lean on Desertec to meet its renewable energy commitments.
The Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) has signed a cooperation agreement with the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen) to help enable exports of Morocco’s vast renewable energy reserves to Europe. The Desertec initiative is designed to develop North Africa’s latent renewable energy potential in part to secure Europe’s cleaner energy future.
Until now, DII’s ambitions have been separate from Morocco’s national solar plan to produce 2GW of solar energy by 2020. The new agreement to generate a European market for Moroccan energy suggests that perhaps the Moroccan government hopes to lean on DII to meet its own commitments.
DII has plans to build the first of three reference projects in Morocco. The second will be built in either Algeria, Egypt, or Tunisia. Meanwhile, Masen has already pinpointed four potential bidders to construct Morocco’s first 125MW concentrated solar plant. There’s a good chance the two groups will join forces.
“Ultimately it depends on the Moroccan side and Masen as to whether there’s a connection with us and their solar plan,” DII spokesman Klaus Schmidtke told Recharge.
Giving it an official seal, the DII/Masen pact was signed in the presence of King Mohammed VI. The royal family is expected to have a fairly significant influence over how the DII project proceeds given that the Moroccan member of the Munich-based consortium, Nareva Holding, is mostly controlled by the country’s royal family.
:: Recharge
More on Desertec and Morocco:
Meet Morocco’s Renewable Energy Market at ENeR in November
Arab Spring May Boost Chance for Desertec Solar Power
World Bank to Fund Massive Grid Expansion to Link Desertec
image via Siemens
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
