Modeling Renewable Energy Resource Potential and Generation for Morocco
This project seeks to accelerated development of decarbonized energy in Morocco by optimizing renewable energy siting and design under energy resource and climate change-driven uncertainties and risk. Morocco has a substantial opportunity to increase energy access and independence while reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change through renewable energy development. Morocco has very limited natural fossil fuel resources, yet more than 80% of Morocco’s electricity results from burning coal, oil and natural gas. As a consequence, over 90% of Moroccan energy results from imported resources and the resource potential for renewable wind and solar power are significant, offering Morocco a unique opportunity to become a leader in zero carbon energy production and the reduction of regional emissions harmful to human health, while also becoming both energy independent and perhaps even a net exporter of electricity.
Morocco currently has both a high electrification rate and low cost of electricity, but Moroccan energy demand will significantly increase to meet the needs of a rising a GDP and water desalination. While developing renewables offers substantial economic opportunities, it also incurs very high initial capital costs and necessitates large-scale infrastructure development. Electricity generation and transmission are long-term infrastructure elements that cannot be moved once constructed. It is essential to design the energy system topology that will provide maximum value to Morocco while also being maximally resilient to emerging threats from climate change. But while numerical weather models provide initial guidance on which locations have high renewable resource potential, Morocco currently lacks the in situ observations that are critical both to validate and improve numerical models. Morocco is also a hot-spot for risk from climate change that will further impact and alter future renewable energy generation and demand.
These challenges and opportunities motivate the driving research question of this project:
Where are the optimal locations to site renewable energy generation in Morocco to minimize the cost of energy under energy resource and climate-change driven uncertainty?
We seek to unlock renewable energy development in Morocco through foundational insights into resource potential, meteorological modeling uncertainty, and climate risk through the investigation of the following objectives:
Multi-scale modeling of renewable energy resources in Morocco
Harnessing spatiotemporal variability in renewables to minimize energy costs in Morocco
Designing a decarbonized Moroccan energy system resilient to climate change
Beyond decarbonization: renewable energy for environmental co-benefits
MIT Project Team
UM6P Project Team
Professor Wahid Mellouki
Professor Radouan Boukharfane