How can it be wrong to develop renewable energy, in a world that is in desperate need for a green transition? In Western Sahara, the problems are numerous.
Saharawis in Bilbao, Spain, demonstrated as a cargo vessel is arriving to pick up more controversial windmill components for occupied Western Sahara.
By 2030, half of Morocco's wind energy production could be generated illegally in occupied Western Sahara. Yet, Morocco presents itself as best-in-class on the energy transition.
The Italian company Enel is one of the firms that have taken the exact same approach as the EU when carrying out ‘stakeholder consultations' in Western Sahara - a procedure now found invalid by the EU Court of Justice.
For the second time in two weeks, windmill products might be exported from Bilbao to occupied Western Sahara.
WSRW has received images of equipment strapped into the hold of a ship that is en route from Bilbao to occupied Western Sahara.
For the third time in a week, Siemens Gamesa is now shipping windmill masts from Spain to occupied Western Sahara.
In a press release of 6 July, Western Sahara's liberation movement “condemns in the strongest possible terms” Siemens Gamesa’s involvement and this week's exports into the occupied territory.
Today, Siemens Gamesa is loading large masts onboard a vessel in Motril, Spain, to be exported to occupied Western Sahara.
19 Members of the EU Parliament today urged the EU to warn the two companies Enel and Siemens about the legal and ethical risk that they run in partnering with Morocco for operations on occupied land.
The 300 MW farm is the first of the two wind farms that Italian company Enel Green Power and Germany's Siemens will build together on occupied land. Construction starts in 2021.
95% of the energy needed by Morocco to plunder the phosphates of Western Sahara is delivered via SiemensGamesa windmills. The company has now prolonged its service contract for the controversial windmills for another 15 years, while continuing to refuse to comment on Saharawi consent.
The Swiss-Swedish technological giant ABB got contracted to build the infrastructure that is set to connect a new wind farm in occupied Western Sahara to Morocco's national electricity grid.
WSRW has again asked Siemens to clarify how they’ve obtained the consent of the people of Western Sahara to their involvement in literally all of Morocco’s wind power plans in the occupied territory.
Even more wind farms are being planned in occupied Western Sahara, and all of them are in the portfolio of the Moroccan monarch's company NAREVA.
Morocco and Siemens press on with their plans to generate energy in the human rights black-spot that is Western Sahara: the first controversial wind farm near Boujdour is expected to be operational in December 2018, built by a UK company.
"Seeking to circumvent the ECJ’s ruling, directly challenges the credibility of the EU, and significantly damages the potential for progress through the UN-led negotiation process", Saharawi groups qualify the EU's talks with Morocco regarding Western Sahara trade, in their letter to the EU's Foreign Affairs Chief.
The Italian renewable energy corporation Enel Green Energy evades questions by civil society about its operations on occupied land.