Morocco invites bids for 850MW wind farm programme

ONE, Morocco’s state-run power utility, invited companies to submit expressions of interest in five wind farm projects with a combined power capacity of 850MW. “The 850 megawatt wind farm project will be structured under a ‘build, own, operate and transfer’ scheme,” ONE said in a statement.

Until 2 March, ONE will take bids for “the development, design, financing, construction, operation and maintenance” of the five projects. Bidders who pass the preliminary, expression-of-interest phase will be invited to bid in an international tender, which will be launched in the second quarter of this year. The tender also includes the separate procurement and maintenance of a 200MW wind farm.

The project will be realised under a public-private partnership with ONE, Energy Investments Co and King Hassan Fund.

Renewable energy is seen as key to the country, which has no oil or gas and aims to diversify its exports to its energy-hungry trade partner, the EU. In addition, domestic demand is forecast to rise by six per cent annually. Morocco aims to increase its wind power capacity to 2000MW by 2020 via a MAD31.5bn (US$3.6bn) programme.