Morocco kicks off tender for 400 MW solar park

• The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy has started to pre-qualify developers for the first phase of the Noor PV II solar project.

The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy(Masen) has issued a call for expression of interest to pre-qualify developers for the construction of a 400 MW solar power plant.

The plant is part of the first phase of the Noor PV II project, under which several PV arrays will be built across eight different locations. According to Econostrum, interested developers and investors have until Feb. 28 to pre-qualify for the tender.

Morocco intends to build at least 2 GW of generation capacity under the Noor Solar Plan. In line with these aims, Masen kicked off another tender for the 230 MW CSP/PV Noor Midelt II project in July.

In early January 2019, the agency also launched a tender for the Noor Atlas projects, a 200 MW scheme to deploy seven PV plants in the southern and eastern parts of the country. German development bank KfW is backing the plan.

Other Masen projects include the 170 MW Noor PV I project, the solar portion and fourth phase of the 580 MW Ouarzazate Solar Power Station, and a CSP-PV solar complex in the Drâa-Tafilalet region of central Morocco.

In addition, the country’s solar plans include the 120 MW Noor Tafilalet plant, which was tendered in 2017, and the 200 MW Noor Argana project.

Morocco wants to increase the share of renewables in its installed power generation mix to 42% by next year, and to 52% by 2030.