Rabat tramway: Urban solar farms to lower electricity bills
Decarbonizing transport is no longer a luxury. It is an imperative for all players at all levels, even for those who are already part of this virtuous circle, such as Rabat Région Mobilité (RRM), the institution responsible, among other things, for managing the Rabat tramway.
Indeed, even though the tramway is an environmentally-friendly mode of transport that emits no greenhouse gases, this manager is indirectly affected by the price shocks of imported hydrocarbons, which the Rabat water and electricity utility REDAL sells to it using electricity supplied by ONEE (National Electricity and Drinking Water Office). So, to immunize its business model against this exposure to fluctuating energy prices, RRM, which is a major consumer of electrical energy (its bill amounts to 25 million Dirhams (USD two and a half million) a year), decided to take an unprecedented step. The idea is to reduce the Rabat tramway’s electricity bill by using renewable energies. The idea of REDAL’s first customer is to power the tramway with green photovoltaic energy produced from urban solar farms. How many solar farms will there be? How much will they cost? Where will they be installed? What share of the Rabat tramway’s overall electricity consumption will they cover? No answers to these questions are yet available. The reason is that the project feasibility study is underway. RRM is waiting for it to be finalized before issuing a call for tenders to select the company that will work with it on the project, which is due to go into service in two years’ time. «This project will enable us to reduce the tramway’s electricity bill and strengthen our business model. And on the other, to contribute to the energy transition», said Nadir Yacoubi, Managing Director of RRM, during his speech at the Sustainable Mobility Forum held in Rabat on January 31.This project is part of RRM’s recently finalized sustainable urban mobility plan. This roadmap will shape and impact the future of urban development in Rabat, Salé, Skhirat, and Temara over the next 15 years, by setting out a number of beneficial trajectories for planning and organizing the mobility of people and goods over that period. «It is a roadmap that spanned a very broad spectrum and took two years to prepare and devise. It has been the subject of co-construction work, which is to be commended thanks to the bridges we were able to establish with all the players in the urban mobility ecosystem, notably: the ONCF (National Railways Office), the SNTL (National Transports and Logistics Corporation), the academic world, the world of research, and civil society», notes Yacoubi. This collaborative effort helped to bring to the surface all the aspirations and needs that needed to be integrated into the roadmap.
Aziz DIOUF
