Morocco’s Office National de l’Electricite (ONE) has named Japan’s Mitsui and France’s EDF Energies Nouvelles as the preferred bidder to build a 150MW wind farm in Taza province, northern Morocco.

The partnership submitted a bid that was 11 per cent lower than the second-lowest bid in February (MEED 4:3:12). The bids were:

• Mitsui (Japan) and EDF Energies Nouvelles (France): MD5.75 a kWh ($0.68)
• Enel Green Power (Italy): MD6.43 a kWh
• International Power (UK) and Nareva (Morocco): MD6.70 a kWh

Taza wind farm will be constructed at a site located 12 kilometres northwest of Taza on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis. ONE will agree a 20-year offtake agreement with the developer.

The UK’s GL Garrad Hassan, France’s BNP Paribas and the UK’s Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are advisers on the project, which is scheduled for operation by July 2014.

The project is part of Morocco’s plan to get 42 per cent of installed electricity capacity coming from renewable energy sources by 2020. Morocco is planning to develop a further 850MW capacity through five more wind farms at the following locations (MEED 14:2:12):

• Tanger II (Tangier): 150MW
• Midelt (Midelt): 100MW
• Jbel Lahdid (Essaouira): 200MW
• Tiskrad (Laayoune): 300MW
• Boujdour (Boujdour): 100MW