The national energy company of Abu Dhabi, known as TAQA, will invest $2.5 billion in three energy projects in Morocco and Tunisia over the next four years, a representative of the company was quoted as saying in the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper Khaleej Times.
Two of the investments will be made in Morocco and includes the upgrading of the Jore Lasfer power plant together with the Moroccan government and the construction of a 300-megawatt wind farm along Morocco’s Atlantic coast in cooperation with the Spanish energy giant, Iberdrola Ingenieria Construccion.
In Tunisia, TAQA intends to build a 500-megawatt gas turbine power plant; this project is still in the prequalification stage.
Since oil was discovered in the country in 1959, Abu Dhabi, which is estimated to control a 10th of the world’s proven oil reserves, has gone through extensive development. It has attracted many international experts on energy production, which the country now hopes to draw from as it pushes ahead with a new agenda aimed at sustainability and green energy.
The most viable example is the Masdar Initiative driven by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company which, according to its website, is the world’s most ambitious sustainability project and will be the world’s first carbon neutral city.
The project aims to establish a whole new city outside Abu Dhabi for 50,000 inhabitants and positions Abu Dhabi as a global leader in research and development for new energy technologies.
In order to achieve this goal, Masdar has signed an agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) whereby MIT will establish a campus in the new city.