Morocco is being lauded as one of the states which have “risen to the challenge of green energy” for its “exemplary record” in generating and exporting renewable energy.
In an article penned by Dr. Stephen J. Blank, a Fellow at the Eurasia Program of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, published Saturday on the RealClearDefense.com website, Blank wrote that Morocco has capitalized on its abundant sunlight, vast open spaces for infrastructure investment, and access to substantial European funding for development, and now exports significant amounts of green energy to Europe.
With Europe’s sharply increasing demand for green energy as it moves away from fossil fuels, Morocco “has every reason to extend its existing investments in [renewable] sources of energy to strengthen that relationship.”
Blank remarked that Morocco has plenty of undeveloped land that it can use to readily harness solar and wind energy on farms that require ten times more land than coal and natural gas projects.
Morocco’s ambition to become a primary supplier of green energy to Europe can be achieved through the implementation of several political and economic decisions, according to Blank.
Given that Morocco currently imports nearly 90% of its energy, the escalating cost of these imports, combined with its natural resources and proximity to Europe, is a driving force behind its pursuit of green investments.
The article highlighted a number of objectives and accomplishments, including Morocco’s construction of the world’s largest concentrated solar project, the Noor Quarzazate Solar Complex. It also noted Morocco’s partnerships with European countries and its intention to reduce fossil fuel energy consumption by 2030.
Morocco’s ambitions didn’t begin yesterday, however. Morocco signed a joint declaration with Spain, France, Portugal, and Germany in 2016 for future cooperation on renewable energy, and Morocco declared its intention in 2009 to reduce its energy consumption from fossil fuels to 42%. It is on track to reach its 2030 goal.
“Morocco’s partnerships with Europe on renewables are already taking shape as it aims to export green electricity to the UK,” Blank wrote. “The plan is to build an undersea cable connecting it to Spain and then across the territorial waters of both Spain and France that would then extend to the UK by 2030.”
Morocco is already playing “a pioneering role,” according to Blank, and that role will almost certainly expand throughout this decade thanks to the country’s efforts in the field.
“Morocco’s example can and probably will lead other states, not least in Africa, to emulate its example,” he stated. “In turn, this process and course upon which Morocco is now embarked shows that solutions to the increasingly urgent challenge of climate change must increasingly be seen as requiring regional and trans-regional cooperation through large-scale investments and projects like those mentioned above.”
Blank also observed that most of Morocco’s investments are occurring or will occur in the Sahara. While Morocco’s encouragement of large-scale European investment in projects on its southern territory “clearly partake of a political motive,” he wrote, observers to the UN have confirmed the large-scale ecologically sound Moroccan investments in the Sahara and their positive impact on the region’s economy and environment. So even though altruism may not have replaced “self-interest as the main motive in world politics,” he concluded that Morocco’s activities in renewable energy generation “merit our attention and support.”