Morocco has inaugurated its Dahr Saadane wind farm, near Melloussa, approximately 34 km south-east of Tangiers. The plant consists of 165, 850 kW wind turbines, for a total capacity of 140 MW, and is the largest wind farm hitherto completed in Africa.
The overall investment amounts to roughly €250 million. €100 million of this amount has been guaranteed by the Spanish Official Credit Institute, the German bank KFW has put up €50 million, while €20 million will come from government funding and the remaining €80 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The new facility follows in the steps of the 54-MW wind farm inaugurated in 2000 in Koudia Al Baida (also close to Tangiers) and is included in a broader project that foresees a €2.8 billion investment aimed at increasing wind capacity to 2,000 MW over ten years. The target involves generating sufficient wind energy to meet 14 percent of the national electricity consumption that is expected by 2020. This implies the installation of additional 1,720 MW of wind power, in 10 sites that have been already selected, of which two (Koudia near Tétouan and Tiskrad close to Laàyoune) will each have a capacity of 300 MW and another two (Tangiers-2 and Taza) a capacity of 150 MW each.
In general terms, the government in Rabat set the ambitious target of generating renewable energy to meet 42% of the electricity demand by 2020. Besides the 14% share provided by wind, the target will be achieved by generating a 14% share of solar (for which an investment for over €7 billion is needed) and another 14% of hydro.
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