Chadbourne & Parke represented the Office National de l’Electricité (ONE), Morocco’s government-owned electricity company, in connection with the 300 MW Tarfaya Wind Project which reached financial close at the end of last week.
Tarfaya is the largest wind farm project in Africa and it is only the second to have been developed under the independent power project (IPP) scheme.
The successful bidders, Nareva Renouvelables S.A. and Kharabel FZE, a UAE affiliate of International Power (IP), were awarded the project to develop the $350 million onshore wind farm located close to Tarfaya in the south west of Morocco. In April 2012, ONE signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Nareva-IP to become the project’s designated offtaker.
Funding for the project was provided by three local lenders: Attijariwafa Bank, Banque Populaire and Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur.
With the demand for electricity in Morocco expected to increase by more than 8% per year for the next twenty years, the Moroccan government has initiated a program to invest $3.5 billion to increase the country’s wind and solar power capacity. The government’s intention is to construct a total of five major wind farms to increase the country’s wind power capacity to 2,000MW by the year 2020, from its current production capacity of 280MW.
The Chadbourne team was led by London project finance partner, Robin Mizrahi, assisted by associates Adnane Belahcen and Laure Berthelot.
“We were delighted to have advised our long-standing client, ONE, on this project,” said Mr. Mizrahi. “This latest deal helps to reinforce Chadbourne’s strong track record of successfully closing power deals in North Africa. I am pleased that we have been able to help Morocco towards its goal of developing a 2,000MW wind-power program by 2020.”
Chadbourne’s project finance practice has played a significant role in the power and project finance sectors in Morocco. On June 25, 2012, Chadbourne announced it had advised ONE in relation to the 700MW Jorf Lasfar expansion project: the largest coal-fired power complex in the MENA region and Morocco’s first IPP.
Chadbourne continues to advise ONE in respect of the development of the 1,320MW coal-fired Safi IPP. Nareva/IP was the successful bidder for this project.
