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Morocco has invested $2.8 billion in renewable energy and is one of the 22 countries that have invested more than $2 billion in clean energy according, to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (NEF).
Bloomberg NEF, a clean energy data provider, researching and reporting on energy trends at the global level, published the report, relayed by Moroccan media, last month.
According to Bloomberg NEF, Morocco’s Noor Midelt project was the largest major solar project financed worldwide last year. The cost of the project has been estimated at $2.4 billion.
Clean energy slowdown
Global investment in clean energy reached $332.1 billion last year, down 8 percent for 2017. The drop is due to an 24 percent decrease in commitments in favour of solar energy, NEF’s date showed.
The investment scale allocated to solar energy fell by 24 percent in 2018 compared to 2017. Despite this decrease in investments, photovoltaic capacity reached a record high—over 100 gigawatts for the first time.
Bloomberg NEF noted that there have been strong contrasts between the clean energy sectors and investment trends.
Wind energy investment jumped 3 percent to $128.6 billion, whereas solar energy investment fell to $128.6 billion. The contrast, NEF noted, was due to a sharp drop in capital costs.
As a result, the global benchmark for the installation costs of a megawatt of photovoltaic capacity fell by 12 percent in 2018, as manufacturers reduced their selling prices in response to the oversupply of solar panels on the global market, concludes Bloomberg NEF.
Morocco’s strong potential for new energy
Morocco has a strong renewable energy potential given its varied geography.
In Ouarzazate, central Morocco, the annual averages of daily global horizontal irradiation vary from 3.86 to 7.85 kilowatt hours per square meter per day, or 7.9 to 11.2 hours of sunshine per day on average.
In terms of wind power potential, the annual average wind speed at 10 meters in the Tangier area, north eastern Morocco, is 10 meters per second. For the Dakhla area, in the Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra region, it varies between 7 and 8.5 meters per second.
