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| Fig. 1: Solar power development in Morocco. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
Morocco is a country of northwest Africa who has taken charge in transforming its energy resources. Morocco is making strides specifically towards renewable energy. In 2009, the government of Morocco implemented a new national energy strategy to kickstart the development of renewable energies, focusing mainly on solar and wind power.
Morocco has implemented its new renewable energy strategy for economic and environmental reasons. [1] Economically, one of the biggest concerns and incentives for Morocco to switch to renewable energies is their high dependency on other countries for energy. 94% of Moroccos energy is imported fossil fuels. [2] The Moroccan government has flagged this dependency as a risk to their own energy security. By making the switch to renewable energies, Morocco hopes to be more self-sufficient with its own energy supply. Environmentally, the big concern for Morocco is lowering carbon emissions. Like many other countries, Morocco has recognized the potential consequences of climate change and has chosen to change their energy sources to help protect the environment. In Morocco, greenhouse emissions from fuel emissions were around 42.1 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2008 and they were projected to more than double by 2020. [1] Because of these pressing issues, the Moroccan government has set ambitious renewable energy goals. By 2020, the country hopes to have 42% of installed power generation capacity by renewable energy resources. By 2030, Morocco hopes to have more than half of its energy generated by renewable energies. [3] To achieve these goals, the renewable energies that Morocco will focus on developing include solar power and wind power.
Morocco has promising climatic environments for both wind and solar power energies. On the West, Morocco has about 3,500 km of coastline along the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean which is good for wind power. Wind speeds can get up to about 11 m/s. In the South-East part of the country, there is a large amount of desert area that receives around 3500 hours of sunshine per year which is good for solar power. [1] Because of these environmental conditions, Morocco has been able to start developing solar stations and wind farms. There are six wind powered projects currently being established across Morocco which are headed by the Office National de l'Electricit et de l'Eau Potable (ONEE). The country hopes to have these wind farms fully completed by 2020. There are also several solar power projects under development. The Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) has been focused on carrying out the expansion of them. [4] Fig. 1 shows just one example of the building of a solar station in Morocco. The establishment of the wind and solar power projects are expensive, however, the long term benefits of renewable energies will outweigh the initial costs. By using renewable energies, Morocco can work to help conserve the environment by reducing CO2 emissions, create a sustainable energy system as well as a new industry for the countrys energy, and become a country who is more independent on their own energy resources. [4]
© Morgan Hentz. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] T. Kousksou et al., "Renewable Energy Potential and National Policy Directions for Sustainable Development in Morocco," Renew. Sustain. Energ. Rev. 47, 46 (2015).
[2] A. Khaliq, "Renewable Energy in Morocco and the Middle East," Physics 240, Stanford University, Fall 2015.
[3] L. El-Katiri, "A Roadmap for Renewable Energy in the Middle East and North Africa," Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, January 2014.
[4] M. Azeroual et al., "Renewable Energy Potential and Available Capacity for Wind and Solar Power in Morocco Towards 2030," J. Eng. Sci. Tech. Rev. 11, 189 (2018).
