Morocco completes Midelt wind farm with 210 megawatts
The National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE, in French) completed the construction of the Midelt wind power plant, in central Morocco, a complex that will have a capacity of 210 megawatts and is the largest in Morocco of its kind.
According to a statement from the Moroccan agency, the plant that has been built in two years and has involved an investment of 2,500 million dirhams (231 million euros).
The note explains that the CEO of ONEE, Abderrahim El Hafidi, together with other officials, made a visit to the complex’s facilities to closely follow the commissioning tests of the plant.
“The construction works of this wind farm have been completed and the assembly rate of the wind turbines has been maintained despite a health context marked by the Covid-19 pandemic,” the note reads.
The wind power plant, located about 8 kilometers northeast of the city of Midelt and built on an area of ??2,300 hectares, constitutes the first park built of the Integrated Wind Power Plan, an ambitious program that foresees the creation of wind turbine parks at various points of the country and will have a total capacity of 850 megawatts.
The other parks to be built included in the program will be located in the south of the country and in the Sahara: the Jbel Lahdid plant in Essauira with 270 megawatts, the Tiskrad plant in Tarfaya with 100 megawatts, and the Bujador plant with 300 megawatts.
According to the note, the construction of these parks falls within the framework of a financing mechanism that involves a partnership between the public and private sectors, and will benefit from concessional financing of 455 million euros and 31 million dollars.
The components of this plant, specifically the blades and towers, have been manufactured in Morocco with the support of the Spanish company Siemens Gamesa, which specializes in the design, manufacture and maintenance of wind turbines.
The project – carried out by a consortium formed by Enel Green Power, Nareva, ONEE – will prevent the annual emission of more than 300,000 tons of CO2.
Morocco is immersed in a plan to develop renewable energies, mainly solar (in thermosolar and photovoltaic mode) and wind, with the construction of several complexes of different sizes, of which the Ouarzazate solar plant stands out, already operational and with 580 MW.
In this energy transition plan, the government had opted for renewables to reach 40% of national consumption by 2020, but last October King Mohamed VI called attention to the “delays” – which he did not quantify – in the execution of the different projects.
Source : evwind
