The major projects launched across the national territory constitute a powerful engine, apt to foster the establishment of professional project ownership. The Noor Ouarzazate complex — the first project of the Noor Solar Plan…
The major projects launched across the national territory constitute a powerful engine, apt to foster the establishment of professional project ownership. The Noor Ouarzazate complex — the first project of the Noor Solar Plan launched by Masen — is singular among all for its scale and its innovative model. This solar-energy production complex has become a lever for local social and cultural development. An evolution that both the development concept and the project management had to be able to absorb…
Rachid Bayed, Director of Delivery, remembers May 2011, when he joined the Masen team. At that time, Masen had only about ten people dedicated to realising the ambitious Noor solar plan by 2020. Given that works were due to start in 2012, deadlines were extremely tight for a project that promised to be colossal. “The same desire to succeed drove each of us, the same awareness of the stakes — concerning both the project’s environmental and local footprint and the quality of its execution and performance.”
A development plan and an architectural programme. Developing some 3,000 hectares requires an overall vision, a coherent general framework and objectives that take the place and the site’s environment into account. When Rachid Bayed came on board, “several subjects had to be handled at once, making different players work together: engineering firms, laboratories, inspection offices, project management, contractors, etc. — each with objectives and processes that were not necessarily alike.” Such stakes had led Masen, from the project’s earliest stages, to seek the advice of two experts — architects and urban planners Abdelhaï Bousfiha and the late Mohammed El Malti. Thus, upstream of the projects, the engineering firms worked with Masen’s teams to verify feasibility and refine the technical solutions envisaged.
In parallel, and following an international call for tenders, the firm Guerin & Pedroza — associated with the firm Laraki & Mestari — took charge of developing the site’s architectural and urban concept. Their mission, to propose a master development plan and an urban, landscape and architectural specification, was essential given the site’s size and the diversity of its programme. In this sense, the urban and landscape concept was one of the decisive factors in the project’s integration into its setting, and today gives a coherent reading of all its components. The recourse to a large-scale programme — engaging both the requirements of the electricity-production project and the specificities of the territory — gave rise to an integrating concept that, for instance, alternated between mineral and vegetal features and drew inspiration from local architecture. The project received the UN development award at the Rio+20 forum in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2014.
The broad lines of the urban and landscape concept were put in place between 2012 and 2013, along with the finalisation of studies and infrastructure projects: roads (60 km), a stormwater drainage system, fencing (30 km), raw-water reservoirs, a water intake, a pre-treatment station, access posts, a telecommunications building, etc. “The deadlines led us to run different phases in parallel, to adapt and to evolve the project as it was being built. So it was not a classic chronological approach that we followed,” Rachid Bayed stresses.
A powerful lever for local development. The launch of the infrastructure projects was an opportunity to form partnerships with various public bodies, in order to improve the employability of unskilled — and even skilled — people, and to take part in structuring projects for the local population (a 20 km road from the RN 10 to the village of Agoudime, a bridge over the Izerki wadi, the establishment of a water-supply network in the commune of Ghessate, from which several douars benefit…). From the start of works, the local population was economically integrated into the project, reaching about 2,000 employees by the second and third years of construction.
The tourism dimension was also taken into account, since the complex is open to public visits. Its scale and diversity are indeed an attraction and offer significant potential and richness for visitors. Various visitor circuits are being studied, with the “Masen Center” — located at the heart of the complex and certified HQE at the exceptional level (a first in Africa) — as the starting point.
The framework and tools for quality and performance control. To ensure the qualitative progress of the process and compliance with the many targeted objectives, “a Quality System frames all our project phases, relying on procedures and business processes. These are updated regularly, taking into account feedback from projects and good practices in the field,” Rachid Bayed explains. A quality system is thus deployed from the programming and planning phase. It covers all stages of delivery — from recruiting engineering firms, through validation and investment decisions and the management of tenders, to construction and the handover of works to operators — for both the infrastructure projects and the solar plants.
Implementing a programme bringing together several trades and involving many players also requires interface management and close coordination with the various entities, while respecting the most demanding standards in project management. The delivery team’s staff are therefore mostly PMP-certified. Quality requirements and compliance with HSE rules are among the top priorities. For certain projects, such as buildings or landscaping, committees were set up to ensure complementary roles and optimal coherence, while enhancing the choices of development and technical and functional programming. “These committees, depending on the case, are composed of architects, urban planners, engineering firms and internal entities such as technical design, Masen Services prospecting and communication.” Other tools facilitate interface management, notably a master planning covering all projects, as well as an overall synthesis plan to manage all physical interfaces between structures. Rachid Bayed concludes: “The project appears as a set of bricks laid one by one as it progresses. Each element of the project was a unique experience and situation, and their evaluation fed our thinking throughout the process. We built up expertise and developed skills. This feedback will be the fundamental basis for the next stages.”
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