Morocco: Siemens agrees to build wind blade manufacturing facility

Siemens has signed an agreement with the Moroccan government to build a factory to produce rotor blades for onshore wind turbines in an investment worth more than €100m ($112m). Company spokesman Bernd Eilitz told African Energy that the facility would produce blades which would “be among the largest single-piece composites in the world”. Blades with a length of 63 metres will be produced initially, but the plant has been designed to also produce larger blade types. Construction could begin on the plant as early as this spring, and operations are expected to begin in 2017.