Promoting investment in renewable energies is high on the agenda of the Ministry of Energy Transition. This department has accelerated the implementation of a series of projects in the sector that are currently in operation. These projects represent a total capacity of around 4.6 gigawatts, with an investment of almost 60 billion Dirhams (USD 6 billion).
As a reminder, midway through the Government’s term in office, several projects with a capacity of 2,000 megawatts were confirmed. This is the largest capacity authorized by this ministry in the last two years.
What is important here is that the renewable energy projects currently in operation have helped to meet almost one fifth of the country’s electricity demand. Not to mention the reduction in energy dependency from 97.5% in 2009 to around 90% today.
A number of measures have been taken to strengthen energy policy and accelerate investment in renewable energies. Firstly, an additional renewable energy capacity of over 7,500 megawatts is scheduled to be built between 2023 and 2027. This corresponds to around 78% of the total additional capacity planned for this period, not including green hydrogen and seawater desalination.
Then, one measure involved speeding up the pace of projects, in particular the Noor Midelt solar complex, with completion scheduled for 2027. In addition, permits have been granted for a series of industrial units to use renewable energies to cut the energy bill and reduce the carbon footprint.
Another measure was to consolidate and develop the power transmission grid. This was to be achieved by stepping up related investments. A master plan has been drawn up to strengthen and develop this network. The aim is also to improve our country’s regional integration over the 2023-2027 period, at an estimated total cost of 23.4 billion dirhams (USD 2.3 billion).
The other measure involved a five-fold increase in investment in grids by 2030, including storage through batteries and pumped storage stations. As a result, average investment in the national power grid will rise to around 4.68 billion dirhams (USD 468 million) per year, after not exceeding one billion dirhams (USD 100 million) annually during the 2009-2022 period.
Mohamed CHAOUI
