French multinational utility company Engie is planning to sell its stake in Morocco's coal plant in Safi (SAFIEC), the company North Africa director told Reuters on Friday. The move is to shift focus on renewables and energy infrastructure, the company said. «By January 2027, we plan to have already divested from all our coal assets», Loic Jaegert-Huber told British news agency on the sidelines of a Moroccan-French business forum in Rabat. «We are committed to divest from SAFIEC», he said. Engie owns a 33% stake in the facility, which has already received «expressions of interests from potential buyers», he told the same source. In addition to its SAFIEC stake, Engie is operating a 300MW wind park in Tarfaya and is constructing a desalination plant and a wind farm in Dakhla, in partnership with Nareva. «The wind park will be ready next year and few months afterwards the desalination plant will be operational», Jaegert-Huber said. The desalination plant will use 90% of its water in irrigation and 10% for the drinking needs of Dakhla. Engie is also interested in Morocco's energy infrastructure projects, Jaegert-Huber told Reuters, referring to the 3-gigawatt power cable between Dakhla and Casablanca. During the same forum France has expressed its willingness to participate in financing the project.
