Morocco has important but untapped potentials in renewable energy, official

Morocco, which imports 97% of its energy needs, possesses important but untapped potentials in renewable energy, including a solar radiation estimated at 5Kwh/M2/Day, a wind potential of 6,000 MW and a forest wealth of 9 million hectares, director general of the renewable energies development center, Abdelhanine Benallou, said here on Friday.

Benallou told a seminar studying the importance of renewable energies, Morocco has drawn up a strategic development plan to diversify supply resources, use national sustainable sources, preserve natural resources and protect environment.

The program, he noted, plans to increase the contribution of renewable energies in national energy consumption from a present 0,24 percent to 10 percent by 2011, and reduce energy reliance on foreign markets from 97 percent to 80 percent by 2020.

According to the executive, achieving this objective will enable to attract investments estimated at US $190 million in 2011 and generate more than 11,500 jobs, particularly in rural areas.

The two-day features debates on the sector's assets and constraints and a round table on the role of the media in developing renewable energies in Morocco.