Wind Energy

Morocco preselects four for concentrated solar energy plant

Based on the review and examination of the submission forms of the 19 Applicants to the Pre-Qualification process related to the development of the first phase of the 500 MW Ouarzazate Program through Independent Power Producer project (design, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of Thermal Solar Plant), the following Applicants have been Pre-Qualified (alphabetical order):

1) Abeinsa ICI, Abengoa Solar, Mitsui et Abu Dhabi NEC ;
2) ENEL et ACS SCE ;
3) International Company for Water and Power (ACWA), Aries IS et TSK EE ; and
4) Orascom CI, Solar Millenium et Evonik Steag.

As a reminder, such examination process has been submitted for the non objection of the International Financial Institutions with whom Masen is under discussion.

The timeline of this selection process led to a rescheduling of the Request For Proposal Document transmission. It will now be sent to the Pre-Qualified Applicants towards the end of January 2011.

This first phase of the Ouarzazate solar complex will be based on Concentrating Solar Power parabolic trough technologies. Subsequent phases will be launched starting from 2011 and before the end of 2012 in order to achieve the target of 500 MW in operation by 2015. At least one of these phases will be dedicated to photovoltaic technologies and another one to concentrated solar energy tower technologies.

The list of the 19 candidates to the Pre-Qualification of the first phase of the Ouarzazate solar complex is reminded hereafter (alphabetical order):

1) Abeinsa Ingeniería y Construcción Industrial, Abengoa Solar, Mitsui et Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa)
2) Cromasolar International Energy Group SL
3) Delta Holding, Energy Consulting Group et SOCOIN
4) ENEL S.p.A et ACS Servicios Comunicaciones y Energía, S.L.
5) Entrepose Contracting, IWB, Solar Euromed – Novatec Biosol, Cegelec Maroc et GE O&G
6) Forclum – Groupe Eiffage, STEG International Services, BrightSource Energy, CNIM, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, Alstom Power, Alstom Maroc, Nur Energie, SGTM et Brookstone Partners
7) Infra Invest
8) International Company for Water and Power (ACWA Power International), Aries Ingeniería y Sistemas SA et TSK Electrónica y Electricidad SA
9) International Power, Nareva Holding, Marubeni Corporation et Siemens Project Ventures GmbH
10) JGC Corporation
11) Korea Midland Power Company, Ltd., Daewoo Engineering Company et Asea Brown Boveri SA
12) Litwin SA, Groupe S.E.E.M., M+W Group, Ynna Holding et Sytelco
13) Lockheed Martin, CBI, Colenergie, Zavala Moscoso et Electria
14) Mitsubishi Corporation et Auto Hall
15) Orascom Construction Industries, Solar Millenium AG et Evonik Steag GmbH
16) Shenzhen Xintian Solar Technology Co, Ltd.
17) SNC-Lavalin Inc.
18) SolarReserve et Veolia Environnement Maroc
19) Torresol Energy Investments et Sener Ingeniería y Sistemas

Moroccan authorities are betting on demand for the clean energy that will be generated by the Desertec project, a 400 billion euro ($494 billion) EU plan to use solar power from the Sahara desert to supply 15 percent of Europe’s power by 2050.

Morocco aims to export surplus electricity to Europe via Spain, where it has a power market trading licence that allows it to sell electricity.

In preparation for exporting the electricity to Europe, Morocco’s power utility ONE doubled the capacity of its interconnector to Spain to 400 MW in 2007.

www.masen.org.ma/