Morocco’s renewable energy agency MASEN announced, Wednesday, the launch of a request for proposals to select qualified companies to build a solar power plant in the Atlas Mountains of Midelt.
MASEN said that developers interested in participating in the project must submit pre-qualification documents by October 20, to finance, build, and operate the “Noor Midelt III” project with a capacity of 400 MW that works with photovoltaic power, said the company in a press release.
With the addition of the Noor Midelt II and III projects, the Midelt region is poised to become one of the largest solar energy producing areas in the world, boasting a total capacity of approximately 1,600 MW.
In 2019, a consortium led by French energy company EDF secured the bid to construct the initial phase of the “Noor Midelt I” project, an 800 MW solar power plant that combines photovoltaic and concentrated solar energy.
The agency had previously announced the pre-qualification of six consortiums to build the 400 MW solar project “Noor Midelt II,” a station with two hours of storage capacity.
Leading the consortiums are renowned international companies Spanish COBRA Servicios and Communicaciones y Energia, French EDF Renouvelables, Italian Enel Green Power, Belgian International Power, and Saudi Acwa Power.
In Morocco, renewable energy sources made up about 18% of the nation’s total electricity production in 2022, with coal accounting for the remaining percentage. In the Kingdom, renewable energy currently accounts for 40% of the actual capacity, with plans to increase this percentage to 52% by 2030 and an ambitious 80% by 2050.