June 6, 2016
Morocco

Ciments du Maroc abandons wind farm plans

By Mariyana Yaneva | SeeNews | Jun 6, 2016 | seenews.com

Ciments du Maroc (CAS:CMA), a unit of construction and building materials company Italcementi (BIT:IT), has decided to abandon its wind farm project at the Safi site.

The company has decided to rethink its energy policy to reflect the growing number of renewable energy projects that are starting operation in the country, CEO Mario Bracci said.

“Today, different opportunities exist and a number of supply contracts are being offered to us,” Bracci noted, adding that the Ciments du Maroc may, for example, sign a deal with local developer Nareva for electricity supply to several of its sites, instead of investing in own electricity generation capacity at just one site.

Back in 2011, Ciments du Maroc commissioned its first wind farm to feed energy to its Laayoune site. This wind farm consists of 6 turbines of 850 kW each that join an existing 150 kW pilot turbine installed in 2003.

A pilot , 150 kW, concentrating solar power (CSP) plant was inaugurated in October 2014 in the area of the cement plant in Ait Baha.

The site at Safi would have been the company’s second wind farm with a planned capacity of 10 MW.

Ciments du Maroc currently operates 3 cement plants in Ait Baha, Safi and Marrakech, 2 grinding centers in Laayoune and Jorf Lasfar, 3 quarries for aggregates and 25 concrete batching plants.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2016/06/06/ciments-du-maroc-abandons-wind-farm-plans/