Alternative Energy Morocco: Solar Energy Water Heaters

According to arabicnews.com Morocco's alternative energy sector has been boosted by three international agreements.

The agreements were signed in Marrakech on Wednesday, a three-party cooperation agreement between Morocco and Italy, on the one hand, and Morocco and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), on the other.

The Agreements aims at developing the Moroccan market of the solar-water heaters (Promasol), through two mechanisms of financing for the promotion of the Moroccan market of renewable energies.

The first agreement relates to cooperation between the Italian Ministry of the Environment and the Territory and the Moroccan Center for the Development of Renewable Energies (CDER), that will benefit from a one million dollar Italian contribution.

The second agreement that sets up the framework of cooperation with the Italian Ministry of the Environment is related to the use of renewable energies in the hotel sector.

Solar water heaters in Morocco rose from 20,738 in 1998 to 111,332 in 2004. For comparison Hawaii has approximately 75,000 domestic installations (each costing about five thousand dollars) and is the leader in the United States for per capita solar water heater installation.

The CDER said that the development of this sector will have a positive impact on industry as it will create more than 1,000 jobs and bring some 1.2 billion Dirhams investments (about 130 million dollars).

Arabic News article on Morocco and Solar Energy Water Heaters