Together with the Centre de développement des énergies renouvelables (CDER), GTZ (now GIZ) carried out wind measurements on the Atlantic coast and in the north-east of Morocco between 1991 and 1994. The objective of these surveys was to prepare a wind atlas showing suitable locations for wind turbines. The evaluations for the Tétouan region near Tangiers showed locations with mean wind velocities of 11.5 m/s, thus placing them among the best locations in the world.

On the basis of these results the Moroccan power utility Office national d'électricité (ONE) set up a 3.5 MW demonstration wind farm in the Tétouan region with financial support from KfW Bankengruppe (KfW banking group). It was connected to the Moroccan grid system in March 2001. One year before a 50 MW wind farm in the same region was built and operated by a French-Danish consortium following international tendering managed by ONE.
After these two projects had been tackled, a number of international organisations approached ONE and CDER with a view to realising further wind farm projects. ONE thereupon resolved to have further wind measurements conducted at various locations. As part of this campaign GTZ supported CDER from 1997 to 2000 in carrying out wind potential studies in the regions of Essaouira, Tarfaya and Laâyoune on the Atlantic coast.

On the basis of the promising results with wind velocities of 8 - 9 m/s at a height of 40 m, ONE is planning further wind farms at two locations near Tangiers and one location near Tarfaya with a total rating of 200 MW.

Another wind farm, Essaouira, with a planned rating of 60 MW, is currently under construction, and is being financed in large part by KfW. Commissioning is scheduled for the first half of 2007. From that time onward, emissions amounting to some 143,000 t CO₂ per year can be avoided.