Morocco: Yassine Alj, energy entrepreneur
By the year 2020, Morocco aims to meet more than 40 per cent of its domestic energy needs from renewable sources and to create jobs in the field of energy-efficiency.
As part of the Special Initiative MENA North Africa/Middle East by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ is assisting Morocco to modernise energy use in the country's mosques. The plan is to green 100 hundred mosques by the end of 2016, and to raise the environmental awareness of more than 300 imams.
For GIZ, this also means working with Moroccan entrepreneurs, like the young Yassine Alj – with great results!
How do you rate the situation in Morocco with regard to energy supply?
Morocco is more than 95 per cent dependent on the import of fossil fuels and electricity. Between 2000 and 2010, energy consumption in Morocco doubled and it’s set to quadruple by 2020. Given that the biggest energy consumers have not changed their ways in spite of the excessive power bills, I really wanted to show that it’s possible to do things differently. After all, the solutions are already on hand!
How is business in the energy services sector in Morocco?
I set up my company Ecotaqa in Agadir just two years ago. Things were tough at the start, but in the meantime our business has begun to pick up. There's a lot of potential in the field of renewable energies and energy efficiency. Cooperating with GIZ on pilot projects like the 'Green Mosques' has enabled us to improve our experience with public buildings and so become more internationally competitive, too.
Read the full interview via GIZ web site.
[Photo by Antonio Cinotti | Flickr]
