The Commons in a Glocal World

18Are green energy investments levelled by the ‘new commons’?

Compensations, CSR measures and gendered impacts of a solar energy project in Morocco

Sarah Ryser

Introduction

The quotation below draws attention to the gendered perspective of the complexity of the set of problems which the largest solar energy project Noor Ouarzazate brings besides the production of green solar energy.

I live in a ‘Douar’¹ close to the Moroccan solar energy project ‘Noor Ouarzazate’. In Amazigh, my Berber dialect, we say ‘Douar’ for a village. (…). We prefer the Amazigh expression and we do not call ourselves ‘Berber’. Now, Noor Ouarzazate is the largest solar energy project in the world with a surface of more than 3000 ha on our land. The land was previously ...