put together by the International Energy Agency in 2019, electricity demand in North Africa is projected to increase by almost 35% by 2030. A large amount of this demand will come from air conditioning, a need that is projected to increase as the blistering Saharan climate grows even hotter with climate change. Renewable energy growth is therefore an essential pathway toward helping the region meet its energy needs as well as its own climate goals.
There are already major renewable energy projects underway in North Africa, many of which were designed to meet the high and growing demand to power African grids and lessen the region’s own carbon footprint. However, this added energy production capacity is being increasingly diverted to European markets as Europe struggles to regain energy security.
Many Moroccan politicians and business leaders are cheering this trend, but for the North Africans who won’t benefit from the business dealings with Europe, the outlook is starker. The scale of the clean energy projects being planned in Morocco means that North Africa is primed for a fresh round of.
But there are, of course, two sides to this story. Producing wind and solar energy for export to Europe could create as many as, according to the World Bank's lead economist for the region, Moez Cherif. This is extremely meaningful in a nation with an unemployment rate of 11.2%. Cherif also said this approach would allow Morocco to"position itself as an industrial hub for investments for exports of green industrial products.