Morocco wind farm starts generating power

Africa’s largest wind farm, at Tarfaya in southwestern Morocco, has started generating electricity and will be capable of meeting the electricity needs of several hundred thousand people.Installed on 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) along the wind-blown southern Atlantic coast, the 80-metre (260 feet) high turbines, 131 in all, will be fully operational in October and produce up to 300 megawatts of electricity. The North African kingdom has no hydrocarbon reserves of its own and hopes to cover 42 percent of its energy needs with renewable sources by 2020. It has launched a plan to produce 4,000 MW from wind and solar power. Costing around 500 million euros ($690 million), the wind farm will be the continent’s biggest, surpassing Ethiopia’s Ashegoda project, with its 84 turbines and 120-megawatt capacity.