Morocco’s Electrical Exports Grow by 315%, Net Energy Increases by 3.8%

Source: Morocco World News

Rabat – Morocco’s Financial Studies and Forecasting Department (DEPF) said that electrical energy imports fell by 85.9% at the end of 2019, while exports rose by 315.7%. The net energy consumption grew by 3.8%.

The DEPF added that the national production of electrical energy continues to grow, reaching 16.9% in 2019, compared to 8.2% in 2018.

The public institution, part of the Ministry of Economy, Finance, and Administration reforms attributed the positive performance to the good dynamics of private production (+31.5%), the projects developed under law 13-09 (+44.6%), and the contribution of national private companies (+158.3%).

Electrical energy consumption recorded an increase of 0.3% at the end of 2019, after a decrease of 2% at the end of 2018.

The slight rebound in electrical consumption is linked to the increase in medium-tension energy sales by 9.6%(+ 0.1%), and low-tension energy by 5% (+ 0.3%), as well as energy targeted to distributors by 1.9% (+ 0.5%).

Thanks to Morocco’s national energy strategy adopted in 2009, the north African country has reduced its reliance on foreign countries for electricity from 98% to 92%.

Morocco has an ambitious goal of reaching 42% of electricity production through renewable energies by the end of 2020, and 52% by 2030.

To achieve its aspirations, Morocco has heavily invested in solar energy through the Noor Ouarzazate solar plant and the yet-to-be-constructed Noor Midelt I, one of the largest solar complexes in the world, alongside the US’ Solar Star in California.

The Noor-Ouarzazate complex was built on an area of more than 3,000 hectares with an investment of $400 million loans from the World Bank and an additional $216 million from the Clean Technology Fund.