RABAT: Morocco has secured a ¤654m loan from German state-owned bank KFW to part-finance two solar power plants totalling 300 megawatts worth an estimated ¤1.7bn.
Tenders for construction of the two plants, one of 200 megawatts (MW) and the other of 100MW, near the southern city of Ouarzazate are expected in the next weeks, Mustapha Bakoury, the head of Morocco’s solar energy agency Masen, said yesterday at the Desertec industrial initiative (Dii) Conference held outside Rabat.
Masen said consortia led by Spain’s Abengoa, GDF’s International Power and ACWA Power had been pre-selected for the 200MW (Noor II) tender.
The three groups are also pre-qualified for the 100MW (Noor III) tender, along with another consortium led by France’s EDF .
KFW confirmed that it will make the loans.
“We will lend ¤330m for Noor II, and ¤324m for Noor III, and we evaluate the first plant contract at ¤1bn, while the second would reach ¤700m,” Head of KFW North Africa & Middle East Wolfgang Reuss said.
“It is almost the half of the necessary funds,” he said.
KFW would be by far the largest lender to the second phase of Ouarzazate 500MW project, banking sources said.
The authority has chosen parabolic mirror technology for the 200MW concentrated solar plant with a contract estimated at ¤1bn, while the 100MW plant, expected to reach ¤700m, will be built as a solar power tower.
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power is already building the first 160MW plant in the Ouarzazate area under a government initiative to produce 2 gigawatts of solar power by 2020, which is equivalent to about 38 percent of Morocco’s current installed generation capacity.
Morocco is expecting to get around ¤300m ($413.09m) from the World Bank and about the same from the African Development Bank and from the European Investment Bank, as well as other smaller loans from the World Bank’s Clean Technology Fund, the French Development Agency and the European Union to seal the contracts financing.
Sources added that all the lenders would give the necessary funding, although this had not yet been announced.
Reuters
