Morocco: A pragmatic approach to achieving sustainable long-term vision

With big programmes to develop solar and wind generation, and several major thermal projects planned, Moroccan officials can demonstrate a dynamic business environment. Mustapha Bakkoury, head of solar agency Masen, can point to the $9bn Projet Solaire Marocain (PSM) development plan financed by international banks and agencies, local markets and equity. Along with a huge wind power programme and plans to exploit the gas – which could eventually involve building a regasification plant, probably at Jorf Lasfar – this represents a vision of development that governments dependent on five-year electoral terms might find impossible to implement, but which King Mohammed VI has personally pushed as part of a long-term energy security policy.