Rio de Janeiro – While in some countries in North Africa the investment in alternative energy is still a project, in Morocco it is reality. The country generates electricity from wind and sun. According to the ministry of Mines, Energy, Water and Environment of Morocco, Fouad Douri, the target is for 25% of the country’s energy matrix to come from renewable sources by 2020. The objective is ambitious, as three years ago the country forecasted 15%.
“We must renew our energy sources and reach a high level of studies and project development in renewable energy. This is economically important and fundamental for society, and it is this form of energy we want for the future,” said Douri, after participating in seminar “Green Energy in Morocco”, one of the events in the sidelines of the Rio+20, on Thursday (21), in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
There are at least five new projects for wind farms in Morocco. Together, they should produce 850 megawatts of energy. A city with 1.3 million inhabitants demands, on average, 230 MW. By 2020, the country plans to be generating 2,000 MW of wind energy.
As Morocco has many desert areas, granting it many hours of sun, the country also has projects in the area. In July 2011, the French Development Agency (AFD) granted 100 million euros for the Moroccan Solar Energy Agency to start implementing the plan to generate another 2,000 MW of energy from 2020 on.
Morocco already has a thermo-solar plant, which generates energy from natural gas and solar panels, in Aïn Béni Mathar. Of the 420 MW produced by the plant, approximately 20% comes from the sun.
Apart from investing in alternative energy, Morocco has expanded the rural population’s access to electric energy as well as participation of the society in talks regarding environmental projects. In 1990, the country had 40 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) dedicated to discussing proposals to preserve the environment. Ten years later, there were 2,000 agreements with the Ministry. Small changes in the constitution were made to allow access to financing sources.
Investment in sustainable use of natural resources has another reason in Morocco, apart from environmental preservation: the country is an importer of oil and aims to reduce its dependence on the raw material. This way, it would become less susceptible to commodity price variation and to the instability caused by political problems in the countries that supply the product.
Mauritania
Mauritania has also started projects for solar, wind and water energy generation. The country, however, still needs money to execute green projects. According to the sustainable development technical advisor at the Ministry of Environment, Sidaty Dah R`hill, Mauritania started exploring oil a short while ago and plans to use the funds generated with the product to invest in sustainable energy projects.
“We already have some renewable energy projects and plan to finance them with oil revenues,” he said. R’hill stated that the country plans to obtain international financing lines to cover the cost of green projects and said that Mauritania would be benefited if the G77 proposal at the Rio+20, for creation of a US$ 30 billion fund for support of clean energy projects in developing nations, had been accepted.
*Translated by Mark Ament
