Morocco is Going Solar

…but it is a long trek.

One of the important challenges for renewable energy development is to get it out to everyone.  In past decades, renewable energy technologies were expensive and mainly available to wealthy people in wealthy nations.  Prices have dropped dramatically, but solar power is still costly, and building new infrastructure is more expensive than just running whatever already exists.  So many parts of the world may lag in developing clean energy sources—even when they have plenty of renewable resources to draw on, and a desire to do so.

This fall Aida Alami reports on progress in Morocco, which has set ambitious goals for converting to renewable energy production [1]. Morocco is blessed with abundant solar, wind, and even hydro potential, and a decade ago the government set a goal of 42% renewables.

Alami reports that in that decade, Morocco built the world’s largest concentrated solar plant, a huge array of mirrors heating a molten salt thermal generator, as well as other significant renewable projects.  Overall, they have reached 37% renewable energy.  Not quite the target, but a long way along.

This summer, Morocco has pledged the next steps, including a target of 52% renewable energy and a promise to decrease subsidies for petroleum products.  They have also pledged to build no more coal fired plants, which currently account for 40% of their power generation.

So that’s all good.  Morocco is setting an example for smaller countries.

But, Morocco offers examples of how complicated this techno-economic process can be.

Morocco’s renewables are mainly from huge megaprojects, and, ironically, are generally exporting green power to the EU—chasing the money.  So, despite major progress, everyday Moroccans are still using older, dirtier power supplies.

Alami reports that smaller scale, local power projects are relatively undeveloped in Morocco.  As in most placed, both financial and policy changes are needed to help all of Morocco access to renewable energy.

While Morocco is blessed with lots of sun, they face increasing pressure on limited water supplies.  Increasing global temperatures is likely to make Morocco even drier, so there is an urgent need to develop efficient water infrastructure, not jsut electricity generation. 

Morocco is setting a great example, and giant solar plants are a great start, but they cannot be the end of the story.

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1. Aida Alami, How Morocco went big on solar energy, in BBC News – Future, November 18, 2021. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211115-how-morocco-led-the-world-on-clean-solar-energy