Morocco’s Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development Leila Benali did not attend a recent meeting of the steering committee responsible for the Moroacco Offer on green hydrogen, amid continued delays in restarting the Noor III solar power plant in Ouarzazate.
During the latest meeting on Thursday, 5 Moroccan and foreign investors were selected to carry out 6 green hydrogen projects in the southern provinces. But Benali was again absent, while other government sectors were present.
On September 3, 2023, Minister Benali attended the very first meeting chaired by the head of the government Aziz Akhannouch regarding the implementation of the Morocco Offer, per King Mohammed VI’s call to accelerate the rollout of this project in light of the current energy challenges.
Since that meeting, which was followed by a government decree to implement the Morocco Offer, Benali has not attended any of the other meetings, which are now being organized by the steering committee, despite the clear connection between her ministry and the project.
The only exception was one meeting in August 2024, which was attended by the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development.
The latest meeting, where five investors were selected, followed Benali’s comments in Parliament last January about the possibility of abandoning the Morocco Offer if it doesn’t deliver a competitive product by 2030.
Rachid Sari, economist and head of the Moroccan Center for Strategic Studies and Digitalization, said “there’s no justification for the absence of the Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development from the Morocco Offer meetings.”
He was surprised by Minister Benali’s statements about the possibility of abandoning the project if there are no results by 2030, as well as her criticism of the SAMIR refinery, emphasizing that the green hydrogen project is a national strategic initiative, not tied to any specific government.
Concerns are also rising about the minister’s future after ACWA Power’s recent financial report revealed losses of over $51 million in 2024 due to the forced shutdown of Morocco’s largest solar plant, Noor III, which is expected to last until the end of Q1 2025.
The expert said that the shutdown really requires clarification from the minister about its causes,” highlighting that “the project’s location was completely wrong, as the cold weather in winter in Ouarzazate is a clear issue, despite the extreme heat in summer.”
“The political concern with the approaching elections could also be a sensitive factor in this matter,” he concluded.
Economic expert Omar Kettani called for “more parliamentary pressure on Benali to get answers about the Noor III plant shutdown, noting that the official silence on the issue is completely incomprehensible.”
Regarding Benali’s absence from the Morocco Offer meetings, Kettani said it “could be due to several reasons, from a government dispute to a personal emergency.”
He added that the absence is “hard to explain, especially given the lack of official data, describing the situation as completely unclear.”
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