EDF announced as speaker at CSP Focus Mena 2018 in Morocco
China based event organiser CSP Focus announced that French energy company EDF will be attending the CSP Focus MENA 2018 event, which will take place in Marrakech, Morocco on June 27-28. Mr. Olivier BORDES, Development Project Director Middle-East Africa of EDF will be among the speakers at the conference.
Morocco’s renewables procurement process has been a key driver of CSP deployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Morocco has set a target of 40% of installed capacity from renewable resources by 2020, rising to 52% by 2030, equivalent to 6 GW of new capacity.
Managed by Masen, the renewable program supported the construction of the 160 MW Noor I parabolic trough plant with three hours storage, operational since 2016. The 200 MW Noor II parabolic trough plant and 150 MW Noor III CSP tower plant, both with over seven hours storage, will also come online by October this year.
The Noor Midelt project is one of the initiatives under the Noor Solar Plan, which aims at producing a total capacity of 2,000 MW by 2020. The first phase of Noor Midelt is expected to consist of two 400MW hybrid concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) plants.For each project, 150 to 190 MW would be provided by CSP with minimum of 5 hours storage.
The capacity of the PV component is left to the bidders’ discretion, but cannot exceed the night-time net capacity from CSP by more than 20%. By design, about 3,000 hectares, some 25 kilometers to the northeast of Midelt, have been zoned for the installation of hybrid plants.
As one of the key players joining the bidding for Morocco’s Noor Midelt CSP project, The French EDF would share valuable experience and feedback in project development, financing and EPC during the bidding preparation period at the CSP Focus MENA 2018 event.
Come and listen to Olivier BORDES from #EDF Energies Nouvelles at #CSP Focus MENA 2018 June 27-28 Marrakech Morocco! Visit website https://t.co/GOkaGEvBZ1 #MENA #Morocco #concentratedsolarpower #Solar pic.twitter.com/VmmOyFEDvR
— CSP Focus (@CSPFocus) May 16, 2018
Mr. Olivier BORDES, Development Project Director Middle-East Africa of EDF talked to CSP Focus and said that CSP-PV hybrid is a good way to combine and take full advantage of the two major solar power technologies. Especially for the development of CSP, hybrid with PV is undoubtedly a great choice.
However, there indeed exist some challenges in the execution, since the systems of CSP and PV are totally different. Questions like how to balance well the outputs, and the EPC work of each system deserve further and deeper study and communication. He added:
“During the CSP Focus MENA 2018 conference, we would also like to hear from the suggestions from CSP technology and component providers, and find out how to better reach the CSP project expectations like NOOR Midelt.”
Compared with another model of solar power combination, Integrated Solar Combine Cycle (ISCC), Oliver seems to prefer CSP+PV hybrid:
“Personally speaking, I think ISCC is more complicated, and faced up with some practical problems. The ISCC project requires more in the location.”
Following ground-breaking stand-alone CSP projects, Morocco now looks set to help pioneer hybrid PV-CSP development through its Noor Midelt project.
To register for the CSP Focus MENA 2018 event click here.
Source: Press Release by CSP Focus. Photo Credit Philippe Roos by via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
