Morocco tenders for 400 MW Noor Midelt III solar farm: Morocco's renewable energy agency Masen has floated a prequalification tender for the 400 MW third phase of the 1.6 GW Noor Midelt solar complex in the Atlas Mountains, according to a statement released last week. Developers will have to submit prequalification documents to fund, build, and operate the solar plant by 20 October. Masen is expected to award the contract for the 400 MW second phase of the project soon, after prequalifying six consortiums including France’s EDF Renewables, Spain’s Iberdrola, and Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power earlier in July.

Noor’s first phase is stalled: A consortium led by EDF began working on the 800 MW first phase of Noor Midelt in 2019, which combines solar and concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies, and the project was expected to deliver electricity to the grid from 2022. However, progress on phase 1 has stalled due to disagreements over CSP tech, Reuters reports, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

ALSO- The kingdom is going big on green fuels: Morocco allocated 1.4 mn hectares of land last year for 454 projects with a combined expected investment ticket of USD 60.5 bn and 93% earmarked for green hydrogen and ammonia projects, Asharq Business reports, citing data by the country’s Economics and Finance Ministry. Eight green hydrogen and ammonia projects secured the lion’s share of the land allocation agreements, including projects proposed by Abu Dhabi National energy company-subsidiary Taqa Morocco, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), AP Moller Capital, Dahamco, Power Sur, Ornx Boujdour et Laayoune, Falcon, and OCP.

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Iran kicked off operations on the IRR 1.4 bn (c.USD 33 mn), 10 MW Shahid Hamid Bakri solar plant in the province of Semnan, Mehr News Agency reported on Thursday. The country is expected to double the farm’s generation capacity over a second phase, the news agency quotes a cabinet representative as saying. Iran’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization (Satba) announced plans earlier this year to re-tender 2.2 GW of solar projects during the current Iranian fiscal year under plans to establish at least one solar farm in every Iranian province. In July, Satba announced plans to build a 1 GW solar farm in Qazvin.

OTHER STORIES WORTH KNOWING ABOUT THIS MORNING-

• Progress in the Omani EV sector: Oman’s Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission has granted licenses for the construction of 55 EV charging stations. The commission says it has approved 128 other stations, and 74 requests to develop charging points are still pending. (Jordan 24)
• Spain’s PVH supplying solar trackers in KSA: Spanish solar energy equipment manufacturer PVH will supply 805 MW of solar trackers for Indian multinational Larsen & Toubro’s Ar Rass solar project in Saudi Arabia. All of the trackers will be locally produced in PVH’s 8 GW tracker factory in Jeddah. (Statement)
• Morocco grants more mining licenses: Morocco has granted London-listed mineral exploration company Aterian 10 new licenses to explore critical minerals including copper and silver on a total land area of 139.6 square km. (Statement)