The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s investment arm, will loan Morocco’s state-run phosphates and fertilizer producer OCP 100 Mln euros to build two solar plants to increase Morocco’s production of low-carbon fertilizers. This “green loan” will provide just under a third of the total 360 million euros required for the project.
IFC and OCP signed the agreement yesterday on day one of the IMF and World Bank Annual meeting currently taking place in Marrakech until Oct. 15.
The two photovoltaic facilities will be built in the mining districts of Khouribga and Benguerir, and have a combined capacity of 400 megawatts and a storage capacity of up to 100 megawatt-hours, according to an OCP statement.
“Today’s agreement is a major milestone towards our target of using 100% renewable energy in our fertilizer production by 2027,” said OCP Group Chairman and CEO Mostafa Terrab.
According to the IFC, the project would be Morocco’s first large-scale solar-plus-storage project and the largest in North Africa.
This is the IFC’s second green loan to OCP in less than a year, following a similar 100 million-euro financing in April to develop four plants with a total capacity of 202 megawatts in the same mining regions.
OCP launched a 130 Bln MAD (13Bln dollars) investment plan last year to totally rely on renewable energies for fertilizer production by 2027.
OCP told Reuters in June that it planned to invest $7 billion in an ammonia factory that will use green hydrogen created from renewable fuel sources.