The Middle East, North, and West Africa are some of the world’s most important fossil fuel hubs, producing nearly half of the planet’s oil and gas.
Hardly surprisingly, resource-rich countries tend to have little to no interest in renewable energy, except countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates which are currently developing some of the world’s biggest renewable energy projects.
One Arab nation is, however, quickly positioning itself as a potential supplier of renewable energy to energy-hungry Europe: Morocco. Although the North African country is not as well endowed with oil and gas as its neighbors, it has managed to develop a vibrant solar energy sector by taking advantage of year-round sunshine, wide open spaces for infrastructure projects, and access to abundant development funding by Europe. Located on Europe’s doorstep and harboring ambitions to generate 52% of its electricity from renewables by 2030, Morocco has emerged as a promising energy partner.
In 2016, Spain, France, Portugal, and Germany signed a Joint Declaration with Morocco for future cooperation on renewable energy. Spain has also been upgrading its submarine connection to the Moroccan electrical grid. Earlier this year, the EU pledged €624 million ($688.6 million) in funding to support Morocco’s green energy transition. The transition requires substantial investment, with the country needing an estimated $52 billion to achieve its 2030 targets. Currently, Morocco imports more than 90 percent of its energy, mostly from fossil fuels.
The world’s largest concentrated solar project will be the Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex. The 580 MW power plant under development is situated 10 km northeast of Ouarzazate. Large rotating mirror arrays, commonly referred to as heliostats, are used in CSP technology to focus and reflect sunlight onto a receiver. To reflect sunlight onto a sizable solar receiver, the mirrors are tilted. This heat, also referred to as thermal energy, can be used to power several industrial processes, such as enhanced oil recovery, mineral processing, water desalination, chemical production, and food processing that is done far from the point of harvesting. It can also be used to spin a turbine or power an engine to generate electricity.
Meanwhile, Morocco is developing a giant 300 MW wind farm in Tarfaya, just across the border from the Western Sahara. The wind farm is the largest in Africa.
