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Saudi ACWA Power Starts Operating Wind Field North Morocco

Saudi ACWA Power Starts Operating Wind Field North Morocco
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Saudi ACWA Power Starts Operating Wind Field North Morocco

Saudi ACWA Power Starts Operating Wind Field North Morocco

Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power Group has announced the operation of Khalladi wind power plant, located at the top of Jbel Sendouq, 30 km from Tangiers.

The Khalladi wind power plant is the first ACWA Power project to be developed within the framework of Law 13-09 on renewable energies.

The law encourages the development of renewable sources in order to promote energy security and access, sustainable development, and integration of Morocco’s renewable energy production with other markets.

ACWA Power Khalladi is the second private company to launch a large wind farm within the framework of this law.

The 120 MW Khalladi wind power plant consists of 40 wind turbines of three MW each. Each turbine is installed on a tower of 80 meters and equipped with three blades of 45 meters.

The first turbines start power supply immediately. Over the next four months, additional turbines will become operational until full capacity of 120MW is met.

The plant will produce around 380 GWh annually, directly powering major industrial customers connected to the high voltage network. Power generation at the wind farm will be equivalent to the yearly average consumption of a city of 400,000 people.

ACWA Power Khalladi, which has been implemented since 2014, is 75 percent owned by ACWA Power and 25 percent owned by ARIF (Argan Infrastructure Fund managed by Infra Invest).

The MAD 1.7 billion dirhams worth project was financed under a long-term debt, mainly with the contribution of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in collaboration with the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Moroccan BMCE Bank of Africa.

This is the first renewable energy project to be financed by the EBRD in Morocco, based only on contractual funding without any financial support.

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China Approves $840B Plan to Refinance Local Government Debt, Boost Economy

Visitors walk past a shop under construction with a dragon mural at the Sanlitun shopping district in Beijing, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Visitors walk past a shop under construction with a dragon mural at the Sanlitun shopping district in Beijing, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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China Approves $840B Plan to Refinance Local Government Debt, Boost Economy

Visitors walk past a shop under construction with a dragon mural at the Sanlitun shopping district in Beijing, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Visitors walk past a shop under construction with a dragon mural at the Sanlitun shopping district in Beijing, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

China on Friday approved a 6 trillion yuan ($839 billion) plan to help local governments refinance their mountains of debt, in the latest push to rev up growth in the world’s second largest economy.

The plan will be implemented over the next three years, Xu Hongcai, vice-chairman of the National People's Congress's financial and economic committee, said at a news conference Friday.

Finance minister Lan Fo'an estimated that the hidden debt of local governments was 14.3 trillion yuan ($2 trillion) at the end of 2023. Hidden debt refers to debt that has not been disclosed publicly, The Associated Press reported.

Lan said 2 trillion yuan would be allocated each year from 2024 to 2026 to help local governments resolve their debts. He estimated that the amount of hidden debt will drop to 2.3 trillion yuan ($320.9 billion) by the end of 2028.

Officials also said Friday that the ceiling to issue special bonds will be raised to 35.52 trillion yuan ($4.96 billion) from 29.52 trillion yuan ($4.12 billion) for local governments.

Lan said that the implementation of such a large-scale replacement measure indicates a “fundamental shift” in China's approach to debt restructuring and said that China’s government debt risk was “controllable.”

Analysts have called for bold, multi-trillion-yuan measures to reinvigorate the world's second largest economy, which has yet to bounce back fully from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local government debts have ballooned partly due to high spending and low tax revenues during the pandemic, but also due to a downturn in the property industry, since sales of land use rights, a key source of local government revenue, have sagged.

The central bank loosened restrictions on borrowing in late September, sparking a stock market rally, but economists say the government needs to do more to ignite a sustained recovery. Government officials have indicated that could come at this week's meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, which must give official approval to any new spending.

The economy has shown signs of life in the past two months. Purchase subsidies offered to people who trade in old cars or appliances for new ones helped auto sales rebound in September. A survey of manufacturers turned positive in October after five straight months of decline, and exports surged 12.7% last month, the largest increase in more than two years.

For most of the year, the ruling Communist Party appeared more focused on addressing long-term structural issues with the economy rather than short-term ones. Previous steps to boost the economy were piecemeal, seemingly aimed at keeping the economy afloat rather than sparking a robust recovery.

In recent weeks, the party has signaled a growing concern about the economy's sluggishness as it tries to meet its goal of achieving growth of around 5% this year. The central bank's monetary easing was followed by government pronouncements that it still has ample funds to pump into the economy.

Still, the longer-term goals of transforming China into a high-tech and green energy economy seem likely to remain the chief aims of the Communist Party, which doesn't face election pressures like the ones that toppled the Democrats and swept Donald Trump's Republicans to power in America this week.