Morocco is not generally renowned as a top energy player in Africa because the Kingdom is not a major producer of oil and gas. The country imports most of its energy.

In fact, its top imports in 2014 were refined petroleum ($3.63 billion), crude petroleum ($2.93 billion) and gas ($2.21 billion).

Nevertheless, Morocco is being repositioned by the vision of its leaders to play a bigger role in the future of clean energy going by recent developments in the country. As one of the two non-oil countries in the Maghreb, Morocco has had to depend on oil imports from abroad for decades.

However, the government is diversifying its energy sources with heavy investments in renewables of which solar is chief. Through the Morocco Solar Plan (MSP), it aims to install 2,000 MW of solar capacity by 2020, contributing around 14% of the energy mix in the country’s electricity supply.

Although plans to supply Europe with some of this clean electricity have been shelved for now, the project has the capability of developing an industry whose technical skills may be exported to other non-oil countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

From a dismal 22% of rural population with access to electricity in 1996, Morocco has increased that figure to an astounding 97% today. Whilst that is a commendable achievement, about thousands of villages scattered across the country are yet to be connected to the national grid.

A 60 million euros facility from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was secured by Moroccan authorities to further provide access for some 1200 villages.

In February 2016, King Mohammed VI turned on the switch at the Ouarzazate Solar Power Station (OSPS) and that event marked Morocco’s journey to become a renewable energy powerhouse in Africa. The first phase of this gigantic project is expected to supply 160 MW (megawatts) to consumers.

This figure is a fraction of the total 580MW of electricity which the station will generate upon its completion in 2018. Then, the complex will supply over 1 million people with cheap and clean energy thereby reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels in thermal power stations.

Morocco’s rising profile has not gone unnoticed regionally and even around the world. The upcoming annual meetings of the African Development Bank scheduled for Lusaka, Zambia in May 2016 has as its theme, “Energy and Climate Change” and it reflects the direction which progressive corporations and countries are gradually moving toward.

It is therefore not surprising that Morocco is the host country for COP 22. In November, the Kingdom will yet again show, by example, why Africa should embrace renewable energy to secure a future that is peaceful and prosperous for its fast-growing population.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Kolawole Talabi is an award-winning Nigerian Writer. He has worked as a Journalist for the last three years. He is a passionate supporter of local culture to which he takes a purpose-driven approach. He tweets via @Kolawole_Talabi