Rabat

- The world is witnessing an acceleration towards renewable energies driven by climate changes and achieving carbon neutrality. Morocco ranked eighth among the countries of the world in the Climate Change Performance Index for 2022, as it was ranked at the forefront of the group of countries making the greatest efforts to mitigate global warming. Morocco aims to increase the share of renewable energies in the electricity mix to more than 52% and achieve 20% of wind energy in its energy mix by 2030.

Al Jazeera Net obtained a set of information from experts and actors in the sector;

Among them are the National Water and Electricity Office, the Mazen Agency, the group responsible for leading and managing the renewable energies sector in Morocco, and the wind energy consultant Said Kamra. You will find them among the answers to the following six questions:

When did wind energy start in Morocco?

Morocco is one of the first countries in the North African region to exploit wind energy to generate electricity, and Morocco has tested large-scale production of electricity from renewable sources since the establishment of the first large wind farms in 1999 with the Abdelkhalek Touris farm, which spans an area of ​​230 hectares with an installed capacity of about 50 megawatts. .

According to Mazen Agency, wind energy began at the beginning of the 21st century, and constituted the real turning point for renewable energies in Morocco.

After preparing the necessary studies, the National Office of Water and Electricity launched, in less than 5 years, two international invitations to submit bids for the projects of the 60 MW "Amojul" wind farm in Essaouira, and "Dahr Saadane" with a capacity of 140 MW in Tangiers, in addition to the first opening to the industrial private sector. Through the "self-production" formula that allowed industrialists to set up their own wind farms.

Morocco codified the formula for dealing between private and public actors in 2009 through Law (09-13), which allowed private investors to initiate renewable energy projects and sell electricity produced through power purchase agreements between customers and suppliers. Morocco launched the National Energy Strategy in 2009 .

The development of renewable energy sources helps improve energy security and fulfill Morocco's commitments on clean energy (French)

How was the energy transition in Morocco?

Hydrocarbons still dominate Morocco's energy package, and the development of renewable energy sources helps improve energy security as well as fulfill Morocco's commitments on clean energy and climate change.

The contribution of renewable energies amounted to about 20% of the demand for electric energy, according to data from the Ministry of Energy Transition, and a decrease in the energy dependency rate was recorded from 97.5% in 2009 to 90.5 percent currently, and there are about 111 renewable energies projects in the process of exploitation or development in Morocco.

The National Office of Water and Electricity says that the wind energy sector has shown many advantages;

These include zero emissions of greenhouse gases, continuity and abundance on a large scale, and a downward trend in production costs.

The launch of an integrated Moroccan wind energy program in 2010 (two thousand megawatts) made it possible to reach 14% of the installed capacity in wind energy in 2020.

While the International Energy Agency says Morocco is making strong progress toward affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, making progress in reducing the energy intensity of the Moroccan economy is more difficult.

What are the opportunities available to Morocco in wind energies?

At the end of 2020, the Kingdom had 12 operational wind projects with a total installed capacity of 1,200 megawatts.

In terms of wind energy, the country ranks 31st in the world, and its 3,500 km Atlantic coast records wind speeds ranging between 7.5 and 11 meters per second, i.e. a technical potential of about 25,000 megawatts, according to Mazen.

The consultant expert in the field of wind energy, Said Kamra, believes that Morocco has important opportunities in the production of wind energy, and it can be a pioneer, but he considers that energy is a management issue before it is an investment issue, which makes achieving goals more complicated, and Said goes to say that "Morocco can remove carbon from the electricity of exporting companies to 88% to be on the same level as European countries such as France and Spain."

According to the energy strategy, new programs have been launched to support investment in renewable energies, including providing seawater desalination plants with renewable energies, especially wind and solar (under development in the Dakhla region), and initiating the development of a road map for developing marine current energy.

Morocco provides complementarity in production, as the industrial plant “Siemens-Gamasa” for renewable energy (German) was established in Morocco to manufacture wind turbine blades in the Tangiers region, which created about 600 direct jobs, the local acquisition of towers (wind turbine shafts), and the local acquisition of goods and services related to.

Morocco is one of the first countries in North Africa to launch wind energy to generate electricity (French)

What is the reality of wind energy production in Morocco?

According to the main indicators for the year 2021, the electrical capacity established from renewable sources will reach 3950 megawatts, representing 37% of the total completed capacity, and the electrical capacity established from a wind source will reach 1430 megawatts, with a share of 13.40% in the total completed capacity, and the number of licenses within the framework of the law (09- 13) to 15 wind energy licenses.

Saeed Al-Kamra - one of the first workers in the field of renewable energies, specifically wind energy, and one of the designers of wind projects to supply manufacturers in Tangier at the level of the Al-Khalidi site (120 megawatts in 2006) - believes that wind farms are the largest contributor to renewable energies by about 11%, and says that energies Renewables represent about 17% of the energy pool, accounting for energy produced, not production capacity.

The consultant expert Al-Kamra explained that the cost of investing in wind energy is estimated at 1.4 million dollars per megawatt, considering that its cost is competitive and decreases with the development of technology, and its profitability is good if it is in an area that knows regular winds.

According to the National Office of Water and Electricity, the installed capacity, technology and cost of kilowatt-hours have witnessed a great development thanks to technological development, and the cost of megawatts installed in wind energy is currently about 11 million dirhams (1.1 million dollars per megawatt).

Any future for wind energy in Morocco?

The National Office of Water and Electricity plans to achieve approximately 9 thousand megawatts from the portfolio of renewable energy projects: 4 thousand megawatts of wind energy (projects supported by various public and private actors) to reach the installed capacity of the electrical system to about 20 thousand megawatts by 2030 compared to 11 thousand Currently installed megawatts, the share of wind energy in the energy mix is ​​about 5,500 megawatts.

The National Office of Water and Electricity said that Morocco is working to achieve an investment by 2030 of about 88 billion dirhams (9.12 billion dollars), of which the wind energy share is estimated at about 52 billion dirhams (about 5.4 billion dollars).

Morocco announced the mobilization of international investments for the wind energy sector worth 14.5 billion dirhams (about 1.6 billion dollars), and it is expected to activate an integrated Moroccan wind energy program, which has a capacity of one thousand megawatts, by 2024.

Where are the huge turbines?

The first wind farms in Morocco had turbines with a capacity of 600 kW (in 1999) and subsequently increased to 850 kW (between 2006-2009), while recent projects have 3.6 MW (2018) and 4.2 MW (2020). The last one will have 5 megawatts.

The development of wind energy in Morocco is a reflection of its international development, as the sector quickly demonstrated the maturity of technology through the passage of the global installed capacity in wind energy from 23 gigawatts in 2001 to about 743 gigawatts at the end of 2020, or 32 times the capacity in 19 years.

According to the International Energy Agency's annual report on wind energies, turbines are moving towards larger, as the trend towards larger turbines, increased power factors, and cost reductions continued during the year 2020.

Offshore wind farms showed high competitiveness, and wind energy capacity increased by 14% in 2020. The average installed capacity of new turbines exceeded 3 MW, and for the offshore 7-8 MW turbines are increasingly used, and the improvement in technical performance leads to higher capacity, with High turbines move the blades vertically.

According to Said Kamra, energy engineers are thinking of developing small turbines within cities through the use of vertical wings that produce with little wind. Said believes that the future of wind energies on roofs may become a reality in Morocco if allowed by the laws that currently frame electricity production.