The winning bid for 800 MW Solar hybrid project in Morocco

The Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) has announced, after a competitive international bidding process, that the consortium of EDF (through its subsidiary EDF Renewables), Masdar, and Green of Africa, Moroccan Independent Power Producer, is the successful bidder for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of Noor Midelt I multi-technologies solar power plant.

With a capacity of 800 MW, this innovative hybrid solar project gathers concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) technologies. The hybridization of these technologies is a world first.

The combined operation of photovoltaic and concentrated solar power technologies increases the plant's output to produce flexible, dispatchable and competitive electricity for the Moroccan grid until five hours after sunset.

The plants will be installed 20km north of the town of Midelt in central Morocco, in the high plains surrounding the Moulouya River and between the Middle and High Atlas Mountains.

The first phase of the project entails the installation of two hybrid CSP-PV plants. The CSP components will each have a generation capacity between 150 and 190 MW.

Construction on the project is expected to begin in the last quarter of 2019, while energy will be delivered to the grid in 2022.

The project is a key milestone towards the achievement of Morocco’s objective to have 52% of its electricity generation produced from renewable sources by 2030.