SIEMENS

Dr. Driss Zejli cuts back the cold stream of air from his air conditioner at the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique, a national research center in Rabat, Morocco, where he is the director of the Renewable Energy unit. “For decades, we searched for energy sources in Morocco,” says Zejli. “We looked in the right places, but we were looking for the wrong things, namely oil and gas.” Morocco covers over 95 % of its energy needs through imports, mostly coal from South Africa. Neighboring countries, such as Algeria and oil-rich Libya, are blessed with fossil fuel deposits. So it's not surprising that Morocco searched intensely for oil and gas within its own borders.

When oil prices temporarily rose to $148 per barrel in 2008, the cost of the country's energy imports doubled. “This was a healthy shock that made us rethink our approach,” Zejli explains. “Now we're focusing on identifying and exploiting our own wealth of energy, as the conditions here for generating electricity from the wind and sun are excellent.” Ideal locations for wind parks can be found in northern Morocco near the city of Tangier, as well as on the west coast, where strong trade winds blow constantly with intensities up to 50 % higher than in the best locations in Europe. Morocco already produces around 280 MW of wind power, and a call for bids has been issued for large solar thermal plants with a capacity of 500-1,000 MW.

In November 2009 the country's energy hopes received a clear directive when a royal solar energy plan was issued that calls for Morocco to generate around 2,000 MW of power with solar facilities by 2020. That equals the output of two large conventional power plants. Wind power output is also expected to reach 2,000 MW by then. “Morocco has two trump cards,” says Zejli. “First, we can store electricity in pump hydro units in the Atlas Mountains; one such facility is already up and running. Secondly, we have a high-voltage link with Algeria and power lines to Spain with a capacity of 1,400 MW. So one day we'll be able to export electricity rather than purchasing it as we do now.”

Such optimism has gripped not only experts like Zejli but also a new generation of environmentally conscious engineers that is coming to the fore. These specialists believe the future belongs to green energy. Khadija Ezaoui and Sanaa Essabar are two such engineers. Both young women are studying at the Ecole Nationale de l'Industrie Minérale in Rabat and took special courses on renewable energy taught by Zejli. “I'm from Ajun,” says Ezaoui, “and the only resources we've used profitably so far have been fish from the sea and phosphate deposits in the desert. Now, a 50-MW wind power facility is being built near Foum El Oued, not far from my home town. Renewable energy is starting to create jobs and new growth industries.”

Plans call for Siemens wind turbines to be used at the new plant. Siemens also offers almost all the components and systems needed for solar thermal power plants (see Pictures of the Future, Fall 2009, Solar Energy, and Spring 2010, Solar Thermal Power). Its main goal is to further reduce the costs of this technology. Now that wind power has been made cost-competitive, the next step is to do the same with solar power, even though subsidies may be needed in the first few years. That's the opinion of Said Mouline, managing director of Morocco's Renewable Energy Development Center. “Solar thermal power needs help getting started,” he says. “When we build power plants we learn more about the technology. That will help us reduce costs in the future. European countries can also improve their climate protection performance and promote North African solar energy production by buying electricity from the region and trading in CO₂ certificates.”

Morocco has already passed laws to enable European investment and financial support in the country, thus laying the groundwork for electricity to be transmitted from Morocco to Europe. The country is thus putting in place an important component of Desertec. Of course this doesn't mean it plans to lease its desert to foreign power plant developers. “We want to learn, and then some day establish our own industry for renewable energy and power plant components,” says Essabar. Morocco is turning its lack of fossil fuel deposits into a strength. Someday people may look back on this scarcity as a blessing. For Ezaoui and Essabar, in any case, the Sahara's green future has already begun.