India-Morocco to Explore Joint Electrification Projects in Africa; Focus on Renewables

Morocco (one of many prime 5 African economies) is one India’s key strategic partners in Africa and in latest years the partnership has acquired new dimensions and dynamism. Recently the 2 sides co-chaired the maiden India-Arab vitality discussion board.

In a wide-ranging written interview to ET’s Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury following the Forum Moroccan Minister of Energy, Mines & Environment Aziz Rabbah defined that India and Morocco can develop joint projects in the vitality sector with nice alternatives in renewable vitality projects. Rabbah was of the opinion that each nations can collectively undertake electrification projects throughout Africa.

Morocco hosted the primary India-Arab vitality discussion board organised below the co-chairship of India and Morocco. What was the primary consequence of this assembly and the views of cooperation for each India and Arab nations, particularly with Morocco?

The Arab nations and India emphasised the necessity to encourage regional electrical energy commerce, which is able to enable vitality suppliers and market members to reap the benefits of economies of scale to develop excessive capability methods and entry cost-effective provide choices that present extra flexibility to entry producing capability from different nations in the areas which can be in a position to meet capability and energy reserve necessities at decrease value.

Both sides harassed the necessity to strengthen Arab-Indian cooperation in vitality discipline in order to speed up the vitality transition by way of the optimum exploitation of renewable , equivalent to photo voltaic, wind and inexperienced hydrogen, and maximizing using fossil fuels in sectors the place isn’t any different different supply of vitality.

In addition, the 2 sides expressed the necessity to strengthen the efforts in direction of enhancing the vitality effectivity packages and actions in numerous financial actions aiming to attaining sustainable improvement in the Arab world and India.

Many Arab nations have expressed their want to embody the choice of electrical energy producing and sea water desalination with nuclear vitality as a part of their methods to diversify vitality and water provide sources. Both events acknowledge the significance of cooperation and change of information and experiences in the sphere of nuclear vitality.

India is the third largest shopper of oil in the world and ranks thirteenth in fuel consumption. It is anticipated that this consumption pattern will proceed till 2040. Given the restricted

and fuel sources and the massive potential of oil and pure fuel in the Arab nations, these strengthen the significance of enhancing the connection between India and the Arab nations in the sphere of oil and pure fuel trade.

More essential in the sphere of commerce, as India’s dependence on oil and fuel imports is quickly rising in the approaching a long time, the place Arab nations take pleasure in big surplus of oil and fuel for exports.

Both sides expressed the necessity to exploit the funding alternatives accessible in the sphere of vitality between the Arab nations and India, and the significance of exchanging experiences in the world of Research and Development (R&D), and enhancing cooperation associated to coaching and capability constructing.

Morocco has large plans for its vitality sector each in renewable and non-renewable sectors. What are the incentives that Morocco presents to overseas buyers and the way can India accomplice with morocco in this initiative?

Morocco’s dedication to an vitality transition is a voluntarist political alternative made by King Mohammed VI, the King of Morocco, greater than a decade in the past, by way of an bold vitality technique, based mostly primarily on the rise of renewable energies, the event of vitality effectivity and the reinforcement of regional integration, accompanied by a powerful orientation of tailored innovation and native element.

Seven key elements have been adopted as a part of our vitality technique, specifically 1)Adequate authorized framework, 2) Openness to the non-public sector, 3) Complementarity of institutional actions, 4) Demand structuring and dependable monitoring, 5) Support for Research and Development, 6)Innovation and industrial integration, in addition to 7) Balanced worldwide cooperation supported by such initiatives of worldwide session conferences.

Morocco has recurrently elevated its ambition in the event of renewable vitality. In 2018, the King, determined to obtain the target introduced by the Kingdom of Morocco on the COP21 by rising the share of renewable vitality to greater than 52% in the electrical energy combine by 2030.

Morocco, as a part of its sector improvement renewable vitality coverage, pays particular consideration to the revival of investments in the renewable vitality sector.

To this finish, Morocco has deliberate to grant particular advantages to buyers, whose projects will assist, firstly, to the qualitative and quantitative improvement of the renewable vitality sector and, secondly, to enhance competitiveness of the sector and job creation.

For tax incentives, among the many measures offered for in the Investment Charter, there are, for sure classes of projects, exemptions or reductions in customs duties, registration charges, participation tax nationwide solidarity, company tax, basic revenue tax, tax on actual property earnings and tax on licenses.

In accordance with the Royal High Orientations, new initiatives have been launched in these latest years to speed up the Moroccan vitality and the financial transition in direction of a low-carbon mannequin and to meet the socio-economic wants of the inhabitants. These embody in specific:

• Adoption of a roadmap for the event of inexperienced hydrogen
• Adoption of a roadmap for the energetic valorization of biomass
• Elaboration of a roadmap for marine energies
• Elaboration of an built-in program of water desalination stations, backed up by renewable vitality manufacturing items, with the goal of assembly the wants of populations and farmers for consuming water and irrigation
• A program to decarbonize nationwide trade by equipping all the economic zones with renewable vitality projects with a complete capability of greater than 800 MW ;
• A plan for inexperienced and built-in tools of the nationwide community which supplies the event of all electrical energy manufacturing projects programmed in renewable vitality, in addition to the deployment of essential investments by the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water for the event and reinforcement of the nationwide electrical energy community, in addition to the modernization of the nationwide electrical energy dispatching system to enhance the monitoring of the intermittent manufacturing of renewable projects.
• About 40 nationwide and worldwide corporations from 12 nations are working in the event of renewable vitality projects in Morocco, which confirms the opening of the nationwide market.

In order to additional strengthen the attractiveness of the nationwide vitality mannequin, a legislative and regulatory framework governing renewable energies is underway to improve transparency, simplify authorization procedures and provides buyers the required visibility in phrases of the reception capability of the electrical energy system.

Morocco has been in a position to capitalize on this achievement for the consolidation and theincrease of overseas direct funding in the vitality sector thanks to a transparent legal-institutional framework, which ensures authorized safety for buyers and donors.

The Public Private Partnership (PPP) mannequin has been a viable possibility to make sure the safety of the nation’s electrical energy provide. Its improvement is marked by enhancements and optimizations in phrases of the Debt / Equity ratio, the contribution of native banks, the ensures required and the authorized framework of the projects.

Morocco and India can develop joint projects in the vitality sector with nice alternatives in the event of renewable vitality projects. India has fairly a complicated expertise in phrases of the event of huge installations and projects; such expertise could be shared and related on the stage of the African continent by way of Morocco.

Morocco and India are essential actors in the area of renewable energies. How can India and Morocco collaborate for the event in electrification projects in Africa? Can’t worldwide photo voltaic alliance, which was launched on the margin of cop 22 held in Marrakech in 2016, represent an excellent framework to do it?

With greater than 15% of the world inhabitants, Africa consumes solely 3.2% of the first vitality used in the world and almost 600 million Africans, or about 70% of the inhabitants of the continent, had no entry to electrical energy in 2018, Africa wants to add 6 to 7 GW of put in capability annually to generalize entry to electrical energy by 2030;

Currently just one to 2 GW are deployed per 12 months, though Africa has monumental potential in renewable energies; the vitality, notably the renewables energies are one of many essential vectors for enhancing cooperation between Morocco and its African counterparts. Moroccan public institutions have all the time been related to the implementation of African vitality methods;

Morocco is current in Africa through the National Office for Electricity and Potable Water (ONEE) as a major participant in the electrical energy market in Africa thanks to the know-how acquired by way of its planning experiences, operation, upkeep and rural electrification, mixed significantly inside the framework of the Global

Program (GREP), a program certified as profitable by worldwide establishments. It additionally made it doable to generalize entry to electrical energy in document time when the agricultural electrification price was solely 18% in 1996;

Today, ONEE is an operator in a number of African nations together with Senegal, Gambia, Chad, Mauritania, Mali, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde. In renewable vitality, Morocco, by way of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN), places its experience in the event of photo voltaic vitality on the service of many African nations;

In order to strengthen the regional and worldwide cooperation, in accordance with King’s imaginative and prescient, the Kingdom of Morocco performs a really lively function in the event of worldwide and regional cooperation in the sphere of vitality, in specific in favor of the African continent.

In this regard, the Coalition for sustainable entry to vitality, co-chaired by the Morocco and Ethiopia aiming to generalize entry to sustainable vitality and significantly to African nations. Morocco has developed an essential arsenal of strategic cooperation settlement, which constitutes an actual alternative to meet the problem of entry to vitality.

In addition, the International Solar Alliance (ISA), of which Morocco turned a member after the signing of the framework settlement, on November 19, 2019, by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and the Environment, in accordance with the necessities of article 7 of this settlement, might play a number one function in the event of off-grid renewable vitality applied sciences, a necessary component to enhance the dwelling situations of residents and to guarantee safety, competitiveness, financial development and expert employment.

The ISA ought to additional help the creation of an enabling setting for off-grid renewable vitality applied sciences by way of, in specific, the switch of know-how, know-how and the sharing of the outcomes of innovation ensuing from R&D to contribute to the emergence of latest merchandise, providers and processes.

Morocco has made a big contribution to inexperienced and clear vitality. how can, in your opinion, Morocco and India be part of palms to form world local weather change agenda?

Despite not being chargeable for the issue of local weather change, Morocco has drawn up its DCN (Determined Contribution on the National stage) with the conviction that world ambitions to deal with the issue of local weather change name for a considerable dedication from all events each in phrases of mitigation, adaptation and technique of implementation, cooperation approaches and transparency.

In phrases of mitigation, Morocco has set a goal for lowering GHG (Green House Gases) emissions by 42%, in contrast to emissions projected for the 12 months 2030. In phrases of vitality, Morocco plans to attain 52% of the put in electrical energy from renewable sources and discount of vitality consumption by 20% by 2030.

In truth, Morocco’s vitality technique and vitality effectivity technique, each have an effect on advancing the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Due to its strategic geographical location, Morocco continues its lively function in accelerating the mixing of vitality markets, whereas striving to strengthen its electrical energy hyperlinks with its neighbors by creating new electrical energy hyperlinks and strengthening current ones.

Morocco continues its lively participation in the activation of the joint declaration on sustainable electrical energy exchanges “SET ROADMAP”, which goals to develop and implement a roadmap for sustainable electrical energy exchanges between Morocco and Europe. (France, Spain, Portugal and Germany).

The European Union has labeled Morocco as a key nation in the “Green Deal” initiative below preparation and has proven an enormous curiosity in the Kingdom’s expertise in the sphere of renewable energies.

Aware of the good significance of cooperation to appeal to investments, switch applied sciences and implement improvement projects and packages, Morocco attaches nice significance to strengthening and creating worldwide cooperation, the place the Department of vitality continues to cooperate with sure worldwide organizations, organizations and our bodies whose goal is to launch or contribute to the implementation of unpolluted vitality projects and packages.

The vitality sector is likely one of the essential areas for strengthening cooperation between Morocco and India. Moroccan public establishments have expertise suggestions in the implementation of regional vitality methods, by supporting establishments in their completely different areas of experience, whether or not it’s planning of provide and demand for electrical energy, engineering, rural electrification or renewable energies, not to point out capability constructing work.

Morocco is encouraging overseas investments in the mining sector. India has an enormous want for various mines to develop its trade. is there any plan for collaboration between the 2 nations or to develop a win-win partnership in this essential sector?

Moroccan mining sector is open to buyers. Exploration, analysis and exploitation actions are carried out below a mining allow or an exploration authorization issued by the Administration in cost of mines.

Moroccan authorities has all the time been involved by the institution of a enterprise local weather appropriate for investments in the nationwide mining sector. This can have been concretized by the implementation of a renewed technique aiming on the improvement of this very important sector. The final technique was illustrated by the implementation of a plan entitled “Plan Maroc Mines 2021-2030”

This plan, based mostly on a complete method in regards to the improvement of an environment friendly and aggressive sector by 2030 working for an built-in industrialization and sustainable development, is construct round 4 strategic pillars, specifically:

• Developing a community of aggressive actors;

• Overhaul of the institutional group of the sector;

• Strengthening the social impression and the accountable and sustainable character of the sector;

• Adapting the legislative framework and monetary and financial measures to the brand new ambitions of the sector.

These measures are keen to give an impetus to the nationwide mining sector and funding alternatives in phrases of exploration, analysis and exploitation of mining merchandise.

In this context, strengthening a collaboration and improvement of a partnership between Morocco and India in the Moroccan mining sector could be materialized by way of:

• Participation of Indian mining corporations in numerous public requires competitors launched by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Environment regarding granting mining permits in the mining area of Tafilalet and Figuig (South East of Morocco).

Source: ET Bureau