Morocco asserts its power as diplomatic spats simmer

Morocco asserts its power as diplomatic spats simmer

At the centre of an instalment in Morocco’s giant Noor solar station in Ouarzazate stands a 243m tower. It houses a receptor that generates electricity from the sun rays, which are reflected on to it by 178 sq m of panels.

“Until a year and a half ago, we would have been in the presence of the tallest edifice in Africa — until the construction of the Grand Mosque Algiers [265m],” notes Mustapha Sellam, site director at Masen, the publicly funded company that runs the complex, during a visit.

But the primary motivation for the country’s push towards renewables, which began in 2009, was not so much to build record-breaking structures, as to reduce the kingdom’s reliance on oil and gas imports. Its oil-rich neighbour, Algeria, cut diplomatic relations on August 24, citing “hostile actions”. 

While the north African rivals have very few economic links, this rift could result in the severing of a gas pipeline that delivers natural gas to Spain and Portugal via 500km of Moroccan land, and gives Morocco 7 per cent of the gas as a transit fee. The contract is set to expire on October 31.

This latest diplomatic spat marks a deterioration of already frosty relations between the