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Rabat – Morocco will invest $2.5 billion in the next seven years to build a brand new carbon-free city that will rely 100 percent on renewable energy.
The total investment value of an upcoming project to power the brand new town of Mahdiyya with solely renewable energy will equal $2.5 billion – once construction completes seven years from now.
The town, to be located on a beach near the city of Kenitra, plans to use sun, wind and hydropower to meet its goal of forgoing all forms of fossil fuels for energy. The city will also build and renovate existing buildings for the efficient consumption over the next seven years.
Architect Mohammed Darwish, who will lead the massive construction project, said on Wednesday that the mini-city will take up eight kilometers of beachfront land and span 400 hectares.
Residences and businesses will only take up 25 percent of the land slated to be part of the town, while the rest will be used to gather energy under tough environmental standards, Darwish said.
Mahdiyya will host a state-of-the-art teaching hospital, a golf course, a shopping mall, tourist facilities and a two-mile Corniche lined with shops and restaurants. The project will be able to accommodate 2,000 people at once, after completion.
“When Morocco committed, in front of the world, to adopt sustainable cities as part of His Majesty [King Mohammed VI’s] vision became the guiding light for us as Arab investors to contribute to the achievement of this commitment to the completion of this integrated environmental project,” Barkat Ali Shanabla, the Executive Director of International Emirati-Moroccan Investment Group – which funded the project – told MAP.
