Even more wind farms are being planned in occupied Western Sahara, and all of them are in the portfolio of the Moroccan monarch's company NAREVA.
The share of Morocco's wind energy projects in Western Sahara is far larger than what has previously been known. New calculations by Western Sahara Resource Watch estimate that by 2020, a staggering 40% of Morocco's wind production will take part on occupied land. Most of it is controlled by the company of the Moroccan king himself.
In December 2016, Morocco's national electricity agency issued a tender to install a very high tension electricity network in "southern Morocco" - the Moroccan terminology for what is in fact Western Sahara; a territory largely and illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975.
The programme will link two wind farms that were at that time still in the planning phase: the Aftissat plant (200 MW) and the Boujdour farm (400 MW). Both projects will be carried out by Nareva - the energy branch of the royal holding company SNI. And both farms will thus be built in occupied Western Sahara.
Work on the Aftissat plant is already ongoing, as UK company Windhoist is at present erecting 56 Siemens wind mills.
These two new plants will add to the two other wind farms that Nareva is constructing in the occupied territory as part of the "integrated wind power project": a programme that includes the construction of five wind farms with the cumulative capacity of 850 MW. Two of those five farms are located in Western Sahara. One of them, a 100 MW farm, will also be built in Boujdour. The other 300 MW wind farm is planned to be constructed in Tiskrad, a town near Western Sahara's capital El Aaiún. The 850 MW programme was accorded to a consortium of firms led by German giant Siemens, who had teamed up with Italy's Enel Green Power and Nareva.
The Moroccan king's wind firm isn't the only one trailblazing the highly controversial wind energy plans in occupied Western Sahara. Up to now, Siemens has a stake in practically all wind farms in the territory:
The following overview enlists stock-exchange registered companies currently operating in Western Sahara. Updated 30 April 2024.
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