(Funding and project details supplied by EBRD added to Paragraphs 6, 7 and 8)

MASEN (Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy) announced that its joint venture with France's EDF Renewables achieved the financial close for their Nassim Koudia Al Baida Wind Farm repowering project.

The wind farm is located in Tlat Taghramt near Tangier in northern Morocco.

MASEN said in a press statement that the project would double the wind farm's production capacity to 100 megawatts (MW) from the existing 50 MW, which was installed in 2000 by the National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE).

The project is scheduled to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2024.

While MASEN'S statement didn't disclose the financing details, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), one of the project's lenders, said on its website that the total project cost is €130 million ($132 million).

In a related press statement dated 19 July 2022, EBRD said it is providing senior debt financing of €44 million to Koudia Al Baida Energy Company, the special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned by MASEN and EDF Renewables, as part senior debt provided by Societe Generale (France), Attijariwafa Bank (Morocco), Banque Centrale Populaire (Morocco) and Bank of Africa (Senegal).

EBRD said it will also provide a 52 million Moroccan dirham loan (equivalent to €5 million), while the Climate Investment Funds' Climate Technology Fund (CTF) will provide a €4.5 million loan to MASEN to finance its equity contribution to the project SPV.

Koudia Al Baida wind farm, which is the oldest utility-scale wind farm in Africa and Morocco’s first renewable independent power producer, will be Africa's and EBRD's first wind-repowering project, according to the EBRD statement. 

MASEN said in its statement that the wind turbine blades would be supplied by Siemens Gamesa's rotor blade factory in Tangier.

It said the annual electricity production of Koudia Al Baida would power the consumption needs of approximately 420,000 inhabitants and prevent the emission of the equivalent of 308,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The Nassim wind programme, like the Noor solar programme, will include all wind power projects carried out by MASEN to achieve the national goal of 52 percent share for clean energy in Morocco's energy mix by 2030.

SDC Deal Number: 4515647158

(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by Bhaskar Raj)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)