Morocco tender to build wind power plant

Moroccan company ONE launched a tender on Wednesday for a contract to build and operate a 150 megawatt wind farm, the first stage in a $3.5 billion wind energy strategy.

The Office National d’Electricite (ONE) set December 10 as the closing date for expressions of interest from firms and consortia, it said on Wednesday in a statement, with formal bids to be submitted in the first quarter of next year.

The successful bidder will be awarded a 20-year contract. The wind farm will be located in Taza, some 300 km (190 miles) north east of Rabat and is due to go on stream in 2014.

Morocco’s government this year outlined plans to spend $3.5 billion on wind turbines which is aimed at increasing Morocco’s share of renewable energy to 42 percent by 2020.

The strategy will involve building five wind farms to increase the North African state’s wind generation capacity to 2,000 megawatts in 2020 from the roughly 280 megawatts it produces now.

www.one.org.ma/