Morocco steps up renewable energy targets at this year’s COP22

The Moroccan capital of Marrakech is serving as the host of this year’s United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference, which is the twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22). With its ambitious plan to transform the country’s energy mix, Morocco is eager to make this year’s COP the “African COP”.

Aside from the country’s achievements in the past year which includes banning the use of plastic bags, launching Africa’s first city bicycle hire scheme, and launching a new initiative – the “Adaptation of African Agriculture” – to help the continent’s farmers adjust to climate change, Morocco is also developing “mega” infrastructure projects to fight climate change.

Morocco almost entirely relies on fossil fuel imports as it has no reserves of its own. In 2015, King Mohammed VI committed the country to increasing its share of renewable electricity generation to 52% by 2030, aiming for the installation of around 10 gigawatts (GW). Of that, 14% is expected to come from solar, with plans to install 2GW of new capacity by 2020, as well as increases in wind power and hydraulic dams.

Morocco has even opened the door to exchanging electricity produced from renewable sources with Europe.

Morocco’s INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution) plan submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is equally ambitious and commits the country to cutting greenhouse gas emissions – particularly in agriculture – by 32% by 2030.

The country has also committed to planting 200,000 hectares of forest and greatly increasing in irrigation. The commitment is dependent on accessing climate financing, but translates to a cumulative reduction of 401 megatonnes of carbon dioxide over the period 2020-2030.

In 2015, Morocco has also completely removed subsidies on petroleum products.

The king also opened the 160-MW Noor One plant in February, which is the first phase of the giant Noor solar complex near Morocco’s southern desert town of Ouarzazate.

Instead of PV (photovoltaic) solar panels, Noor uses CSP (concentrated solar power) technology – giant mirrors to reflect the sun’s rays on to tubes containing liquid which is super-heated to drive turbines. CSP offers storage of electricity for up to three hours after the sun has set, which covers peak demand times.

Noor Two, which is located near the site of Noor One, is currently under construction. It will use the same CSP technology, but on a bigger scale with the hope of storing electricity for seven hours.

Noor Three however will use a new variant on CSP technology – the solar tower, where the mirrors are directed at a central point.

The three Noor plants will add another 350MW to the national grid, and are expected to be completed by 2017 or 2018. Noor Four will be constructed near the High Atlas town of Midelt and Morocco’s renewables agency, Masen, announced this week at COP22 that it would open the bidding for two 400MW combined PV and CSP plants in early 2017.

Morocco is also investing in wind, with the construction of five new wind farms being planned at different sites across the country – Midelt, Tangier, Jbel Lahdid, and Tiskrid and Boujdour in the disputed Western Sahara territory. Their combined capacity will be 850MW, a huge increase taking Morocco closer to its aim of producing 14% of electricity from wind by 2020.

But while developing renewable power sounds good on paper, cost will be a big factor. It remains to be seen whether the costs of CSP will fall low enough to be globally commercially competitive, and deliver cost-effective renewable power for Moroccan consumers.

CSP also uses large amounts of water to keep the mirrors clean – a real problem in water-stressed Morocco.

At the same time, Morocco has not totally kicked the fossil fuel habit – coal still makes up the biggest part of energy production today (35%) and is set to be expanded over the next five years. The new energy mix will also include at least 3,900MW of energy from natural gas, and the search for hydrocarbon deposits on Moroccan soil continues.