Rabat - Siemens will open a new wind turbine rotor blade facility in the northern city of Tangier in 2017, according to Windpower Monthly, an industry news source.

Rabat – Siemens will open a new wind turbine rotor blade facility in the northern city of Tangier in 2017, according to Windpower Monthly, an industry news source.

According to a source form the German technology company, the new plant will create 700 jobs in Tanger Automotive City – an industrial park approximately 35 km away from the Tanger Med port that links the kingdom to Europe, the Middle East and the rest of Africa.

“Morocco is the perfect location from which to serve the growing onshore wind power markets in Africa, the Middle East and Europe,” Markus Tacke, the CEO of Siemens Wind, said. “The economy is strong, the political climate is stable, and Morocco has a young, skilled and motivated workforce.”

Siemens said the new factory would be the first wind-related project in the country and the region.

“We are now ‘first movers’ for the production of wind turbine blades in Morocco and the entire Middle East and Africa region,” said a Siemens spokeswoman.

The company has also partnered with Moroccan equity firm Nareva Holding and Italian developer Enel Green Power to bid on a 850MW government tender for five new wind power projects.

The victor of the tender has not yet been revealed, however, Enel Green Power announced that the consortium of companies entered as the lowest bidder in the tender.

Unable to comment further on the tender, Siemens added that Morocco was an attractive investment market.

“The Moroccan government has presented a global plan to enhance its energy infrastructure. It aims to meet 52% of its energy demand with renewable energy by 2030, of which 20% is expected to be generated from wind,” the spokeswoman said. “The local market development was therefore one of the decision criterions for establishing the factory,” the Siemens spokeswoman said.

The company said the wind blades produced in the Moroccan factory would “mainly” be used for wind projects in Egypt, in accordance with a framework agreement Siemens signed with the latter country last year.