Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has officially inaugurated its new rotor blade factory in Tangier, Morocco. This is the first blade manufacturing plant of a wind turbine manufacturer in Africa and the Middle East and is ready to offer wind turbine blades ‘100% made in Morocco’.
To equip the SWT-DD-130 platform turbines (up to 4.2MW power rating), B63-10 blades with a length of 63 m will be produced for export to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as well as for local projects. The plant is positioned to produce other blade models in the future, which could reach up to 75 m.
These integral blades are based on licenced technologies and made of composite materials.
The plant of 37 500 square m, which started production in April 2017, is strategically located in the industrial zone of Tanger Automotive City, approximately 35 km from Tanger-Med port and ideally positioned between Europe and Africa.
A training centre of 3500 square m has been created to facilitate knowledge transfer from Denmark to Tangier. The learning process ensures the complete transfer of the technical and process skill sets necessary to optimise the manufacturing process.
The new blade factory will play an important part in contributing to the Morocco’s national programme to achieve production of electricity from clean energy to up to 52% by 2030, of which 20% is likely to be generated by wind. A prospective 850 MW wind project that will be built by a consortium of Siemens Gamesa, Nareva and ENEL will represent a major milestone in meeting this goal.
With a 72% market share in Morocco, Siemens Gamesa has delivered major wind energy projects including Tarfaya (300 MW), Tangiers (140 MW), Essaouira (60 MW) and Haouma (50 MW).
