The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) has launched a pre-qualification process for the selection of private partners for the financing, construction and operation of two wind farms with a total capacity of 400 MW in Northern Morocco.
According to the tender by Masen, a 150 MW Koudia Al Baida wind farm is to be constructed in the provinces of Fahs Anjra and M’diq-Fnideq, and a 250MW Nassim Dar Chaoui wind farm is to be constructed in Tangier and Tetouan provinces.
Interested parties must respond to the tender by before June 24.
Masen, owned by the government of Morocco, is the company responsible for leading the deployment of renewable energy in the North African country. The company currently has 4,680 MW across wind, hydro, CSP and solar power plants in operation in its portfolio.
Masen tender to boost Morocco’s renewables plans
The launch of the renewables tender by Masen is in alignment with the country’s goal to increase the share of renewable energy in its electricity mix to 52% by 2030. Renewable energy currently constitutes 37.6% of Morocco’s installed capacity, of which 17% is wind.
“Due to its Project Financing structure, this new program will promote greater involvement of the private sector in the deployment of renewable energies with the participation of commercial banks, Moroccan and international, in its financing,” said Masen in a statement.
The launch of the two wind farms tender by Masen, dubbed Nassim Nord, follows the publishing of a pre-qualification shortlist for the 400 MW Noor Midelt III solar project in December last year. Once selected, the winning bidder will commence the construction process for the project which is planned to be connected to 400 MW of energy storage.
Morocco is one of the leading renewable energy markets on the African continent. The North African country is planning to add 9 Gigawatt (GW) of new electricity generation capacity by 2027, of which 7GW will be through renewable energy.
According to Morocco’s ministry of energy, the country will require at least $9 billion in investment to meet its goals to add 9GW of new power generation capacity by 2027.
