Morocco to start work on 500 MW solar plant in 2012

By Souhail Karam

CASABLANCA, Morocco (Reuters) - Morocco plans to speed up tender processes for the development of a 2,000-megawatt solar energy plan, starting with the award this year of a first contract for 160 megawatts to be generated using concentrated-solar technology (CSP).

Mustafa Bakkoury, who chairs the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen), said a winning consortium for that first phase of a 500-megawatt solar power plant, in the southern region of Ouarzazate, would be announced by the start of summer.

Ouarzazate's 500-megawatt complex, which should be completed by 2015, is the first in the so-called Moroccan Solar Plan that aims to produce 2 GW of solar power by 2020, which corresponds to 38 percent of the country's current installed power generation capacity.

"Works (on Ouarzazate's first 160-megawatt phase) will start in the third or fourth quarter of 2012 and we aim to complete the work," Bakkoury told the two-day Solar Maghreb conference in Casablanca.

Masen will pick a winner for the 160-megawatt parabolic trough plant from the three following consortia:

- Abeinsa ICI, Abengoa Solar, Mitsui and Abu Dhabi National Energy Co.

- Enel and ACS SCE

- International Company for Water and Power (ACWA), Aries IS and TSK EE.