Morocco‘s State power utility ONEE has obtained a $300-million loan from China Exim Bank to finance a 318 MW coal-fired plant in the eastern town of Jerada.
China‘s Sepco III won a 3-billion dirham ($348-million) tender launched by ONEE last year to build the second coal-fired power plant in Jerada, near the Algerian border, where protests frequently erupt over unemployment since the closure of the coal mines there in 2001.
Morocco has a huge deficit in energy production as annual consumption is growing by around 8% and it has to spend heavily to subsidise power due to high production costs.
Earlier this month, Safi Energy Company, a joint venture between Morocco‘s Nareva, France‘s GDF SUEZ and Japan‘s Mitsui, secured $2.6-billion in financing to build another 1 386 MW coal-fired power plant in southern Morocco.
Morocco wants to meet domestic power demand using thermal power, clearing the way to export renewable energy to the European Union.
By: Reuters
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/moroccos-onee-gets-300m-loan-from-chinas-exim-bank-2014-09-25
