Taqa Morocco to earmark USD 320 mn to boost its clean energy portfolio: Taqa Morocco — a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) — plans to allocate MAD 3.3 bn (c. USD 320 mn) to develop renewable energy projects in the country yielding an expected 200 MW by 2025, the company’s Vice President Amr Mohamedi told Bloomberg Asharq. This follows statements from Taqa CEO Majid Iraqui last March on the company’s ambitions to develop several wind power farms in the kingdom.

REMEMBER- Morocco has a lot of wind energy potential: In July, Nareva Enel Green Power (NEGP) — a JV between Morocco’s electricity company Nareva and Italian renewable energy developer Enel Green Power — kicked off operations on its 300 MW Boujdour wind farm in Morocco. Activation of the Boujdour wind farm brought the number of operational wind farms in the country to 17. The wind farm is part of NEGP’s 850 MW Integrated Wind Project (IWP), which seeks to deploy an additional 100 MW from the onshore Tiskrad wind farm in Laayoune and 270 MW from the Jbel Lahdid onshore wind farm in Essaouira.

Details on Taqa’s new plan: The company secured earlier this month MAD 6.6 bn from a number of local banks in a bid to refinance debts it incurred to fund its operations, and will use a chunk of the capital to expand its renewables production capacity and finance planned desalination projects by 4Q 2023, Mohamedi said, without providing details about the other renewables ventures. The company is planning to leverage its efficient renewable resources to fuel its green hydrogen export plans. Morocco is also looking to up its clean energy volumes in anticipation of the EU’s carbon border tax system and in preparation of its own planned emission caps model, Mohamedi noted.

REFRESHER- Morocco wants to position itself as an export hub for renewable energy and green hydrogen to Europe: Back in February, Spain extended a EUR 800 mn credit line to the kingdom and signed 19 MoUs including a renewable energy development agreement with the country. Other nations have also been showing interest in the country’s potential, with Germany signing with Morocco a partnership agreement in 2020 to build a 100 MW hydrogen plant in the country. Morocco and Portugal also signed an agreement to similarly develop green hydrogen plants in the country with plans to export the green fuels to the EU.

Taqa Morocco plans to invest USD 1.6 bn in renewable energy projects by 2030, Iraqui said back in March. Its renewables portfolio includes the 96 MW Noor Midelt solar generation plant, and includes other wind energy projects with a combined 100 MW volume in the country’s north, and 600 MW of clean energy farms in pre-development in the south.

Morocco has big renewables targets: Morocco wants renewable energy to account for 80% of its total power generation by 2050. The country plans to more than triple allocations for renewables projects to MAD 14 bn (c. USD 1.4 bn) between 2023-2027 as part of a target to have 50-52% of its energy come from renewables by 2030. Morocco’s installed capacity of renewables stood at more than 4 GW as of 2022.