Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power has reported progress on the financial front of two landmark solar power projects in Morocco. A consortium led by ACWA Power announced
that it has closed debt funding worth $2 billion for two concentrated
solar power (CSP) projects in Morocco. ACWA Power will work with Spanish
technology provider Sener and Chinese construction and engineering
company Sepco to develop CSP projects with a total capacity of 350 MW.
The CSP project will form the phase 2 of the landmark Noor-Quarzazate
solar power project. The total envisaged capacity of the project is 2
GW, or 14% of Morocco’s total power generation capacity. The project is
expected to achieve full capacity by 2020.
Phase 1 includes Noor I which comprises a 160 MW parabolic
trough-power project and is in the advanced stages of construction.
Phase 2 includes two projects, called Noor II and Noor III, with
capacities of 200 MW and 150 MW respectively. Noor II will be based on
parabolic technology whereas Noor III will be developed using power
tower technology.
The ACWA Power led consortium won the right to develop Noor II and
Noor III projects in January this year through a competitive bidding
process organised by the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN). The consortium has been able to attract debt funding from a number of
institutions. In December last year, the African Development Bank
pledged to support the 2 CSP projects with $250 million funding, while a
few days back, the European Union granted $47.8 million loan for the project. The full list of debt providers to the project is not known at the moment.
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/05/29/acwa-power-secures-2-billion-morocco-csp-projects/