The Tarfaya wind farm, which represents 15% of Morocco's national wind energy target (2,000 MW by 2020), was put into commercial operation at the beginning of the week, announced the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water (ONEE) and "Tarfaya Energy Company" (TAREC), on Friday in a press release. This park will allow for a production of more than 1,000 GWh/year, "which is the production necessary to supply a city of nearly one and a half million inhabitants, like Marrakech, thus contributing to the strengthening of Morocco's energy independence", specifies the press release. With an installed capacity of 301 MW and its 131 wind turbines of 2.3 MW each, the Tarfaya wind farm is "the most important wind project ever carried out on the African continent", emphasizes the press release, specifying that the site of the park benefits from "extremely favorable" climatic conditions in terms of wind, allowing a load factor of 45% to be reached.

With an installed capacity of 301 MW and its 131 wind turbines of 2.3 MW each, the Tarfaya wind farm is "the most important wind project ever carried out on the African continent", emphasizes the press release, specifying that the site of the park benefits from "extremely favorable" climatic conditions in terms of wind, allowing a load factor of 45% to be reached.

Falling within the framework of the sustainable development objectives of ONEE and its two partners for this Project, "Nareva Holding" (Morocco) and "GDF SUEZ S.A" (France), this park will make it possible to avoid emissions of around 900,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, which corresponds to the quantity of CO2 absorbed annually by 150 million trees. Carried out by "TAREC", this project with a total cost of 5 billion dirhams was financed, according to the same source, by equity provided by GDF Suez and Nareva and bank debt subscribed to from a Moroccan banking consortium composed of Attijariwafa bank, the Banque Centrale Populaire, and the Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur.

This park, whose construction began in early 2013, was commissioned in accordance with the contractual schedule in several tranches of 50 MW each, the first of which took place in June 2014, notes the press release, making it known that the construction phase allowed for the creation of 700 jobs, while the 20-year operation period should generate more than 60 direct permanent jobs. And to recall that the sale of electricity produced by TAREC to ONEE is governed by an electricity supply contract, concluded for a duration of 20 years from the commercial operation of the wind farm, on a "Build, Own, Operate and Transfer" (BOOT) basis.