Morocco has been for some time having a look at nuclear to answer its energy needs.
This leading economy in North Africa indeed sees its electricity demand growing by around eight percent per year.
Let us review the main figures about Morocco. On a personal note, it is a country where I have been enjoying myself and a proud nation with great people. As I got friends coming from this place, I take the opportunity to greet them here.
Morocco is very close from France, by the geography but also because the French language is widely spoken for business purposes.
The Kingdom of Morocco (official name) comprises nearly 34 million inhabitants for a surface of 446 000 square kilometres. A third of the population is below 14 according to the CIA World Fact book. Concerning the economy, the main issues are the poverty and, what bring us today to this magnificent country, the energy dependence.
The quasi totality of energy in Morocco is indeed brought by foreign fossil fuels, including oil from the neighbouring Algeria. This is why, the local government is looking at the nuclear option, which might help a lot in solving all the issues at hand. To the Figaro, the local government imports 97 percent of the consumed energy.
It is almost natural for the government of the King Mohamed VI to regard the nuclear option as there are almost no local energy source. Nuclear to date is quite convenient and brings many advantages. The cooling of the plant would be easily done by the Atlantic Ocean.
Atomstroyexport, a Russian company and a subsidiary of Gazprom hence went to Rabat in March, the capital city of Morocco to discuss the possibility for the local government to choose Russian technology for the nuclear plant that would be built.
Off course, other nuclear industry companies like the French Areva or the US General Electric are not willing to let the Russian company get the market.
In any case, if Morocco was to have a nuclear power plant, it would not be working before 2013 concludes the Figaro, this indeed leaves some time for the King Mohamed VI and his government to choose which technology they will choose.
Sources :
- L’Economiste, a Moroccan newspaper
- Le Monde article
- CIA World fact book on Morocco.
- Le Figaro article
I’m from Casablanca and want to make few remarks regarding your article above. I do believe that several things need to be done by Morocco before looking seriousely to this nuclear option: 1) use effeciently the resources actually available by developing energy saving programs (economie d energie). 2) Develop a public transportation as it will save a lot of imported oil. There is actually no “metro” or efficient public transportation even in casablanca city with more than 4 millio hb. 3) Develop a security and safety programs to change the actual people behaviour – nuclear can provide cheap energy but can be a disaster if not well managed. Otherwise, I think that nuclear energy option is inevitable for country like Morocco. Thanks
Thanks Hassan for your comment and your interest in this article.
Your ideas and comments are totally right and I could not agree more to what you said.
1. les économies d’énergie (energy efficiency) are indeed a thing to work on in an important way. I am totally agreeing with you on that. I personally worked on energy efficiency for my Master’s thesis.
2. Public transportation would indeed lead to huge energy savings.
3. Of course, safety and security are important issues when it comes to nuclear. But to what I know about Morocco via my friends from Rabat, it should not be a huge problem.
Thanking you again for your interest in my blog and waiting forward from hearing from you. 😀