The European Union (EU) and Morocco unveiled three new Euro-Mediterranean platforms on gas, the regional electricity market, and renewables and energy efficiency to facilitate partnerships between stakeholders and strengthen cooperation between the countries of the Union for the Mediterranean.
On gas, the cooperation platform will discuss how to develop gas production in North Africa and eastern Mediterranean countries for their domestic markets and for export to the EU. It will also debate regulatory, financing and infrastructure issues, such as new pipelines and LNG facilities in order to create a Mediterranean gas hub.
The regional electricity market platform will centre on gradually removing technical, regulatory, and infrastructure barriers to the free trade of electricity across international borders. Trading electricity freely in the Mediterranean region would boost energy security by diversifying supply and increase competition between power generators.
On renewable energy and energy efficiency, the platform will analyse how to promote the right regulatory frameworks and markets to encourage investments in renewables and energy efficient practices. It will also exchange best practices in areas including measuring energy efficiency, developing national energy efficiency plans, enforcing energy codes for buildings and defining minimum energy performance standards for appliances.
In parallel, the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a €43m financing agreement for the phase-3 of the Ouarzazate Solar Complex in central Morocco which will see the installation of a 100-150 MW Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) tower. This will add to the 160 MW CSP plant already installed and 150-200 MW CSP Parabolic Trough plant in the same area. A further 50 MW of solar power capacity is expected to be installed at the Ouarzazate site in the next three years, with the overall objective of reaching a 560 MW capacity by 2016.
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