82 PERSPECTIVES ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS | VOL 42 | 2024 Embracing nuclear power? Although not listed in Morocco’s current NDC, the introduction of nuclear power may represent a major opportunity for Morocco to pursue its decarbonization agenda, and the kingdom has been quietly exploring this option for the past several years. Its nuclear aspirations are possible due to the surprising presence of approximately 6.9 million tons of uranium locked away in its phosphate reserves, the largest supply of uranium available in any single country (Arredondas, 2023). In 2016, the kingdom received approval from the International Atomic Energy Agency for the launch of a nuclear power program, and it was recently named by the organization as one of several emerging nuclear powers on track to launch nuclear programs for 2030. More recently, Morocco has signaled its eagerness to pursue nuclear power as a renewable energy source through a July 2023 memorandum of understanding on reactor development with a subsidiary of the Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom (Taouil, 2023). Since 2021, Morocco has been collaborating with Hungary on nuclear energy training and education initiatives, and it cosponsored a declaration at the 2023 COP28 climate conference in Dubai that called for a tripling of global nuclear energy production to reduce emissions (Rahhou, 2023). While there are many technical, regulatory, and political challenges involved in establishing nuclear plants, demand for the technology is likely to continue to build over time as climate change continues to stress Morocco’s dwindling water resources. The country is aggressively pursuing large-scale desalination as a solution to its water crisis (see Boston’s article in this volume for further details) but is constrained by the high energy costs of the desalination process. Nuclear development has been suggested as a potential antidote to the issue and introducing such plants for desalination purposes could pave the way for a broader rollout of atomic energy in Morocco. Upgrading the national power grid Increasing the share of renewable power in Morocco’s electricity mix comes with certain costs: for example, substantial upgrades to Morocco’s national power grid are required to accommodate the increase in renewable power generation, as much of the current grid infrastructure is outdated and may not be able to handle an influx of renewable power. Grid upgrades are also important because many of Morocco’s current and future wind farm sites are either remote from the power grid or lack the electrical infrastructure to be able to achieve high grid penetration. In other systems where renewable energy installations are located far from consumption areas, such as offshore wind farms in northern Germany, power congestion has been an issue (Boulakhbar et al., 2020). Recent infrastructure investments by ONE have helped the situation, but many more are needed to keep up with the growth in generation. Promoting more effective utilization of renewable power is not the only way that upgrades to Morocco’s transmission infrastructure will contribute to decarbonization––the replacement of aging transmission lines with modern ones will also reduce power loss, thereby improving overall energy efficiency and reducing electricity-related carbon emissions (El Hafdaoui et al., 2024). Because wind and solar power generation is more intermittent than fossil fuel-based generation, the development of more robust grid-scale energy storage will be important for mitigating fluctuations in power availability caused by the planned increase in the share of renewables. Morocco has several large pumped-storage hydroelectric plants that can be used for temporary energy storage, and it plans to implement more in coming years. Newer renewables installations developed through MASEN’s project tendering system, such as the 400-MW Noor Midelt III solar complex, which is planned to begin construction in 2025, will also include battery energy storage systems (Murray, 2023). A domestic green hydrogen sector is also under development and eventually may become an additional solution for local storage. Currently, however, the Moroccan grid lacks significant energy storage or demand response capabilities, partly due to a lack of clear regulatory guidelines regarding private investment in grid storage and smart grid projects (Berahab et al., 2021c). Reforms are needed to ensure that Morocco’s grid receives the investments it needs to remain resilient to fluctuations in renewable power availability. Regional and international grid interconnections represent an additional way that Morocco plans to mitigate the risks caused by the addition of large amounts of intermittent renewable energy capacity to the national grid. Morocco is currently connected to Algeria, Egypt, and Libya, and it is also linked to European power grids through interconnections with Spain and Portugal (King, 2022). It intends to expand its trade of renewable energy with Europe under a Roadmap for Sustainable Electricity Trade, signed with several EU nations in 2022 (COP27, 2022). Additional connections to Europe and to Mauritania are planned, and an ambitious project, known as Xlinks, seeks to establish an enormous undersea cable to car-
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