Beautiful days are shaping up for wind energy in Boujdour, a city on the Moroccan-administered side of Western Sahara. The National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (Onee) and the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) have recently signed a contract for the construction of a 300 MW wind farm in this city. The partnership was concluded on November 20, Rabat, between Morocco and the private developer of the 850 MW integrated wind power project, consisting of the Moroccan group Nareva Holding and the Italian Enel Green Power. The park will be located 7 kilometres from the town of Boujdour. The implementation of this project will start in 2021 and will cost 4 billion dinars or just over 375 million euros.
The wind farm to be installed in Boudjour is the second in the 850 MW integrated project launched a few years ago in Morocco. The latter includes a total of five wind farms, including Midelt (180 MW), Boujdour (300 MW), Jbel Lahdid in Essaouira (200 MW), Tiskrad in Tarfaya (100 MW) and Tanger II (70 MW). Together, these plants will prevent the production of 2,380,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of the consumption of a city the size of Casablanca.
A series of projects that benefit Morocco in more than one way
One of the major benefits of this project for Morocco is the construction of a wind-power industry on Moroccan soil. Indeed, a turbine production plant with an annual production capacity of 600 units (equivalent to 600 MW per year) has been set up in Tangier by Siemens Gamesa Renewable. This German company and Enel Green Power had won the international tender for the development, design, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of the 850 MW integrated wind project.
Morocco, one of the leaders in wind energy on the continent
In 2016, a report from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) revealed that Morocco’s cumulative wind energy capacity from 2014 to 2015 was 787 MW, ranking the country third among the largest wind energy markets in Africa and the Middle East. The country came just after South Africa (1053 MW) and Egypt (810 MW). Morocco has adopted an energy strategy that was based on the implementation of a vast wind power programme. It has also decided to invest 31.5 billion dirhams (nearly 3 billion euros) to increase the installed capacity of wind power to 2000 MW by 2020. Morocco wants the share of renewable energy in total installed electrical power to reach 52% by 2030.
Luchelle Feukeng