Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, China’s Chint Group to Build Three Solar Plants in Morocco

The Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) has selected Saudi Arabian power engineering firm ACWA Power and China’s Chint group to set up three solar plants with a total capacity of 70 megawatts as part of the Noor PVI project.

With a combined capacity of 170MW, the three photovoltaic projects will help provide electricity with a price of 4.22 euro cents a kilowatt per hour, MASEN said in a statement.

In this respect, the Noor Ouarzazate IV will have a maximum capacity of 70 megawatts while Noor Laayoune will have 80 megawatts and 20 megawatts for Noor Boujdour.

The statement quoted the President of Masen Mustapha Bakkoury saying that these investments aim at expanding the Agency’s “portfolio of multi-technology projects, always with the goal of responding in the best way possible to the needs of our client and partner, the National Agency for Electricity and Drinking Water.”

The three solar power plants will be funded by the German development bank (KfW) and with a green bond issue by Masen, the first in Morocco.

In this regards, the KfW will provide 60 million euros, while the bonds will make 1,150 million dirhams available for the project.

As part of a low-carbon economy endeavor, Morocco set the ambitious target of bringing the share of renewable energy to 52% of total energy consumption by 2020.