"It's helped the people here enormously," he said, after serving lunch to a group of lobster-red English tourists on the terrace. "We have 20 to 30 percent more tourists now."

Sidi Kaouki first got electricity two years ago, not from the Moroccan grid, but from wind turbines that produce electricity. The town is a small example of the growing wind energy industry in Morocco. Tangier, Morocco's northernmost town, has a 50 megawatt plant, which helps to power most of that region's grid.

"Most of the large wind projects that we are developing will go toward the grid," said Abdehanine Benallou, Chief Executive Officer of the Centre des Energies Renouvables (CDER) here. CDER organized and co-funded the project in Sidi Kaouki. "Sidi Kaouki is the exception, it is a very small project, only 72 kilowatts, that provides electricity to a town distanced from the grid."

The two small windmills whooshed lazily in the wind, a few hundred yards from the town's most dominant structure, a large white mosque, but more than 12 miles (20 kilometers) away from the nearest point on the grid. "We looked at many potential sites," said Abdelmoula Nayssa, director of wind energy at CDER. "There are many such isolated towns that have no chance of access to grid electricity, and Sidi Kaouki was eventually chosen."

Indeed, there are an estimated two million rural Moroccans living without electricity, a problem CDER hopes to solve, not only with wind power but more often with solar electricity. Some 125 miles (200 kilometers) away, outside of Marrakech, another small village has benefitted from CDER's projects. Ouled Ali Ben Ahmed is a tiny town with 100 families living on the dusty, semi-arid plains that stretch between Marrakech and Casablanca. The dirt roads surrounding the town get more donkey traffic then automobiles. But, two years ago, CDER installed a system of photovoltaic, or solar, electricity here.

"Now I can watch TV any time, all the time," said El Ghali Ben Bouih, 48, who lives in Ouled Ali Ben Ahmed with his wife, three daughters and parents.

"Before, when we had to charge to diesel batteries, it took the whole day to go to the market and return, and even then it would not last so long, the energy had to be saved."

Now Nadia and her sister Halima can do their homework at night under lights provided by a solar panel that sits, gleaming, atop Ben Bouih's house. Their school is a new development as well, begun after the town received electricity; the children had to commute miles away before the school was built here.

The school, mosque, and street lights are all jointly paid for by subscribers to the system, part of the 40 dihrams (about $4) charge paid monthly by each household. "It can be a little expensive," said Ben Bouih. "Many people haven't taken it yet, but they see their neighbors who have it, and the convenience, and I think it is only a matter of time before they take it."

"In the end people end up saving money," said Benallou. "The amount that they spend on wood to cook, and batteries, or diesel lamps, it all adds up. Plus this system doesn't damage the environment. One of our biggest problems is the burning of wood in Morocco-the deforestation only worsens the drought."

The semi-arid areas around Marrakech have not had rain for almost three years now, making life very hard for Ben Bouih, who is a farmer and trader.

With his cattle barely surviving, and crops at their worst ever, Ben Bouih had to scrape the money together to feed his family and his cattle: about 500 dihrams per month (about $50). So the added cost of electricity is a burden, he said. "But it is worth it," said Ben Bouih. "In five years we pay no more, and we own our own electricity for free."

The 40 dihrams charge goes toward the cost of the infrastructure. The loans must be repaid, but once finished the town owns its own system. "We wanted to create projects that are interactive with communities, so that people would have to pay, but also know why they are paying," said Benallou. "They will pay for the next five years, but in the meantime we are teaching them how to service and maintain their equipment so that after five years they will be completely independent of us, and the grid."

Both of these programs are to be showcased to interested groups in the upcoming COP7 climate change talks being held in Marrakech October 29 through November 8. "We want to show people what we are doing here," said Benallou of the two day trips, Ouled Ali Ben Ahmed on Saturday, November 3, and Sidi Kaouki on Sunday, November 4. "For us it was important to have the climate change talks here, not just to be the host, but to show the world our own efforts in environment and safe energy sources. For a small country we are very advanced."

He said the environmental impact of such electrical systems is minimal in comparison with coal- or oil-burning power generation, or even hydro electricity. But such issues were not foremost in the mind of hotel man Saad, who saw it as a modern convenience that allowed him to buy a washing machine and dishwasher, color TV and a water pump, upgrading his six hotel rooms. Nor to Ben Bouih, who can now walk to morning and evening prayers under street lamps instead of fumbling in the dark.

"It is a win-win situation," said Benallou. "And, we hope, the way of the future in rural Morocco."