The Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr. Mohammed BOUSSAID, gave, Tuesday, November 4th , 2014 in Casablanca, a speech at the opening session of the first Moroccan international exhibition on photovoltaic, organized by the Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment.
On this occasion, the Minister called on donors and commercial banks to support the solar energy and photovoltaics sector by the establishment of appropriate financing mechanisms that take into account the financial nature of its projects and the specific nature of their innovative business model.
The Minister also called on the public and private operators to make every effort to develop a true "ecosystem" around this innovative new industrial field with high added value.
In this context, Mr. BOUSSAID reiterated the firm commitment of the Government to provide assistance and the necessary support to economic operators, in terms of regulation, taxation, access to funding, business climate, training as well as at the level of all key factors for the success of this big business, expected to be, according to the Minister, a “success story” that can be exported in the future to friendly African countries which already show great interest in the Moroccan experience.
The Minister stressed that the increasing demands on solar energy and photovoltaic in Morocco recently supported by decompensation energy strategy that the government initiated, is a great market that offers attractive investment opportunities. He explained, for this purpose, that in order to meet the growing energy demand from industry dynamics of Morocco, as well as the pressure of urbanization and the increasing needs of rural areas in relation to the widespread electrification, Morocco raised the development of renewable energy as a priority throughout the country to increase their share to 42% of the domestic production capacity in 2020. "Morocco Solar Plan" alone should cover about 10 % of electricity demand.
Mr. BOUSSAID argued that since its launch in 2009, this strategy records encouraging progress. Thus, at the end of 2013, the contribution of renewable energy sources exceeded 16% of the global electricity production instead of 4% recorded five years ago. "This performance is due to the State’s significant support by adopting measures and incentives to guide and stimulate investment, especially in renewable energy such as the photovoltaic one," the Minister specified.