Morocco proposes itself to the EU as a “Green” energy supplier, but exploiting Western Sahara
The Middle East, North and West Africa are some of the world's most important fossil fuel hubs, producing nearly half of the planet's oil and gas. It is therefore not surprising that resource-rich countries tend to have little or no interest in renewable energy, with the exception of countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates which are currently developing some of the largest renewable energy projects in the world.
One Arab nation, however, is rapidly positioning itself as a potential supplier of renewable energy to energy-hungry Europe: Morocco. Paradoxically, the very fact of having limited fossil energies makes it more available to renewable ones. Although the North African country is not as well endowed with oil and gas as its neighbors, it has managed to develop a vibrant solar energy sector by taking advantage of its large, sunny landscape, wide open spaces for infrastructure projects and access to abundant funding for development from Europe. Located on Europe's doorstep and with ambitions to generate 52% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, Morocco has emerged as a promising energy partner.
In 2016, Spain, France, Portugal and Germany signed a joint declaration with Morocco for future cooperation on renewable energy. Spain is also boosting its undersea connection to the Moroccan electricity grid. Earlier this year, the EU allocated 624 million euros ($688.6 million) in funding to support Morocco's green energy transition . The transition requires substantial investments, as the country needs around $52 billion to reach its 2030 goals. Morocco currently imports more than 90% of its energy, mostly from fossil fuels.
The largest concentrated solar project in the world will be the Noor Ouarzazate solar complex. The 580 MW power plant under development is located 10 km north-east of Ouarzazate. Large arrays of rotating mirrors, commonly referred to as heliostats, are used in CSP technology to focus and reflect sunlight onto a receiver. To reflect sunlight onto a sizable solar receiver, the mirrors are tilted . This heat, also called thermal energy, can be used to power a variety of industrial processes, such as advanced oil recovery, mineral processing, water desalination, chemical manufacturing, and food processing that occurs far from the point collection. It can also be used to spin a turbine or power a motor to generate electricity.
Meanwhile, Morocco is developing a giant 300 MW wind farm in Tarfaya, just across the border from Western Sahara. The wind farm is the largest in Africa.
Greenwashing of the occupation of Western Sahara?
But Morocco's clean energy sector has a dirty little secret: It is largely powered by the occupied territory of Western Sahara, which, under international law, would not yet be Morocco . Western Sahara is a disputed territory on the northwestern coast of Africa, with 20% of the territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic while 80% of the territory is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. With an area of 266,000 square kilometers and a population of just 587,000, Western Sahara offers vast areas of sparsely populated land that Morocco has exploited for its green energy projects. The NGO Western Sahara Resource Watch revealed that around 81% of the land allocated to such projects will be located in the Western Sahara territory annexed by Morocco in the 1970s.
Indeed, Morocco has gone to great lengths to try to buy the acquiescence and cooperation of its European energy partners, who consider its occupation of Western Sahara illegal. We know that Morocco has had no problem even using heavy lobbying tools in the European Parliament to protect its interests.
“The Moroccan monarchy is trying to green its occupation. It is trying to present itself as a leader in the energy transition, but most of its new projects are in Western Sahara. By involving foreign companies, like Siemens, they are making Europe complicit and creating a sense of normality in employment,” complained Mahfoud Bechri, coordinator of the Western Sahara Not for Sale (WSNS) campaign.
The EU has explicitly stated that it will not import energy from the territory due to Western Sahara's status. In fact, no country has officially recognized the occupation as legitimate, although some do so in practice. It will be interesting to see how the EU will separate imports from Morocco proper and the occupied territories, even as it continues to pump millions of dollars into Morocco's clean energy sector. Because electrons, like money, have no smell.
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The article Morocco proposes itself to the EU as a supplier of "Green" energy, but by exploiting Western Sahara comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-marocco-si-propone-alla-ue-come-fornitore-di-energia-green-ma-sfruttando-il-sahara-occidentale/ on Tue, 28 Nov 2023 12:00:18 +0000.