RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco’s renewable energy agency Masen launched a prequalification tender on Wednesday for the third phase of a solar power project in the Atlas mountains.
The tender asks developers to submit prequalification documents by Oct. 20 to finance, build and operate the 400-megawatt (MW) Noor Midelt III using photovoltaic (PV) technology.
Masen appointed a consortium led by EDF Renouvelables to develop the 800-MW first phase of the project, Noor Midelt I, in 2019 combining PV and concentrated solar power (CSP) technology.
Four years later, the first phase is yet to be completed partly due to disagreements over CSP technology, sources say.
Last month Masen announced it had prequalified six consortiums to bid as developers for the 400-MW second phase of the project, Noor Midelt II, a PV plant with two-hour storage capacity.
Renewable energy represented 18% of actual electricity production in Morocco in 2022 with coal accounting for the rest. Renewables account for 40% of installed power capacity, which Morocco wants to raise to 52% by 2030.
(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi, editing by Angus McDowall and Jonathan Oatis)