Morocco chosen as location for German-led solar farm
November 15, 2011
Morocco has been chosen as the first location for a German-led, €400bn project to build a network of solar and wind farms across North Africa and the Middle East to provide 15% of Europe's electricity supply by 2050.
A coalition of companies including E.ON, Siemens, Munich Re and Deutsche Bank which is named ‘The Desertec Industrial Initiative’ (DII) have announced that "all systems are go in Morocco", with construction of the first phase of a 500MW solar farm scheduled to start in 2012.
The precise location of the €2bn plant is yet to be finalised, but it is expected to be built near the desert city of Ouarzazate. It will use parabolic mirrors to generate heat for conventional steam turbines, as opposed to the photovoltaic cells used in the UK.
The 12 square kilometre Moroccan solar farm will be used as a "reference project" in both Europe and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region.
Discussions are now underway with the Tunisian government in relation to building a solar farm and Algeria is the next obvious country, due to its close proximity to Western Europe's grid. Countries such as Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Syria and Saudi Arabia are predicted to start joining the network from 2020, as a network of high voltage direct current cables are built and extended across the wider region.
Germany has recently decided to totally phase out nuclear power by 2022 in reaction, in part, to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011. They would like to enter the age of renewables with sustainable sources of electricity supplying 80% of their power generation by 2050.
To guarantee long-term support from the Germany government there would be "pre-conditions". There must be "liberalisation" of the energy markets across the MENA region: "North Africa still provides huge subsidies for fossil fuels. There would need to be regulatory improvements. Renewables will then be able to compete and a common market created. Other European states must participate, too.
Egypt is also keen to participate and is hopeful that it will have a 1,000MW wind farm built by 2016 in the Gulf of Suez, adding to the 150MW "hybrid" gas-solar power plant that opened 100km south of Cairo early in 2010.
