The largest private electricity producer in Morocco, TAQA Morocco, plans to invest 3.3 Bln MAD (approximately 320 Mln Dollars) in a clean energy project with the capacity of 200 megawatts by 2025, according to Omar Alaoui Mhamdi, the deputy general director of the company, who spoke with Asharq Business on Tuesday.
This and other new projects are intended to lower the carbon footprint of TAQA Morocco, said Mhamdi in a press conference conducted at the company’s headquarters in Casablanca to share its biannual report.
This month, TAQA Morocco received 6.6 billion MAD of funding from Moroccan banks, half of which was allocated to repay an international loan. The rest will be invested in renewable energy and seawater desalination projects during the fourth quarter of 2023 and next year.
TAQA Morocco produces around 40% of Morocco’s electricity, mostly through its plant in Jorf Lasfar, the largest coal-fired thermal plant in the Africa and Middle East region.
TAQA Morocco, according to Mhamdi, anticipates demand for clean energy to rise in the coming years, especially considering the imminent European carbon tax. These global forces have encouraged the company to invest more in clean energy to meet the needs of Morocco’s export sectors.
Mhamdi also said that TAQA Morocco is looking to engage in Morocco’s green hydrogen projects given the great potential of renewable sources of wind, sun, and seawater. He highlighted that there are increasingly cheaper opportunities to produce the green hydrogen, at a cost of about $2 per kilogram, and to extract other materials such as biofuels and green ammonia for export to nearby European markets.
TAQA Morocco’s revenues increased by 26% in the first half of 2023, reaching 7.44 Bln MAD (724 Mln Dollar), while net profits decreased by 24.4%, estimated at 458 million MAD (44.5 Mln Dollars). In his statement, Mhamdi attributed this to the decline in the Moroccan dirham against the US dollar and the impact of rising coal prices globally.
He predicted that coal prices would remain volatile in the coming months, as they are linked to higher gas prices.