Renewable Energy in Morocco: Potential and Progress

Morocco, being one of the largest energy importers in MENA, is making concerted efforts to reduce its reliance on imported fossil fuels. Renewable energy is an attractive proposition as Morocco has almost complete dependence on imported energy carriers. In 2022, Morocco spent around US$13.5 billion on all energy imports (crude oil and oil products, coal, natural gas and electricity). Annual electricity consumption in Morocco was 38 TWh in 2022, and is steadily increasing at a rate of around 7 percent each year.

The major sources of renewable energy in Morocco are solar and wind power. Wind energy potential is excellent in vast parts in the northern and southern regions, with the annual average wind speed exceeding 9 m/s at 40 meters elevation. As far as solar is concerned, the country experiences 3000 hours per year of annual sunshine equivalent to 5.3 kWh/m²/day. In Morocco, the total installed renewable energy capacity (including hydropower) was approximately 1,431 MW in 2022.

The Moroccan Government has set up an ambitious target of meeting 52% of its energy requirements using renewable resources by 2030. Morocco is investing heavily in developing its renewable energy sector, which will reduce its dependence on imported energy carriers to a great extent.

Morocco Solar Energy Program

Morocco has launched one of the world’s largest and most ambitious solar energy plan with investment of more than USD 9billion. The Moroccan Solar Plan is regarded as a milestone on the country’s path towards a secure and sustainable energy supply which is clean, green and affordable.

The project is on track to generate 3 GW of solar power by the year 2028 through mega-scale solar power projects at five locations — Laayoune (Sahara), Boujdour (Western Sahara), Tarfaya (south of Agadir), Ain Beni Mathar (center) and Ouarzazate — with modern solar thermal, photovoltaic and concentrated solar power mechanisms. Morocco, the only African country to have a power cable link to Europe, is also a key player in Mediterranean Solar Plan.

The 500MW Solar Power Complex at Ouarzazate, is the world’s largest solar power plant. It has been built with an investment of around USD 9 billion. The Ouarzazate Solar Complex, also known as Noor CSP having a total capacity of 580 MW has an estimated output of 1.2 TWh/year which is meeting the energy demands of more than 1 million population.

The first phase of Ouarzazate solar project, known as Noor 1 CSP, involved the construction of a 160 MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant which was switched on in February 2016. Around $3.9bn has been invested in the Ouarzazate solar complex, including $1bn from the German investment bank KfW, $596m from the European Investment Bank and $400m from the World Bank.

The Ain Beni Mather Integrated Solar Thermal Combined Cycle Power Station, commissioned in 2011, is one of the most promising solar power projects in Africa.  The plant combines solar power and thermal power, and has the production capacity of 472 MWe. The total cost of the project was US$544 million including US$43.2 million in grant financing from the GEF, two loans from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a total of US$371.8 million and a loan of US$ 129 million from Spain’s Instituto de Credito Official (ICO).

In 2010, the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN), a public-private venture, was set up specifically to implement these projects.  Its mandate is to implement the overall project and to coordinate and to supervise other activities related to this initiative. Stakeholders of the Agency include the Hassan II Fund For Economic & Social Development, Energetic Investment Company and the Office National de l’Electricité (ONE). The Solar Plan is backed by Germany, with funding being provided by German Environment Ministry (BMU) and KfW Entwicklungsbank while GIZ is engaged in skills and capacity-building for industry.

Morocco Wind Energy Program

Morocco has a huge wind energy potential due to it 3,500 km coast line and average wind speeds between 6 and 11 m/s. Regions near the Atlantic coast, such as Essaouira, Tangier and Tetouan (with average annual average wind speeds between 9.5 and 11 m/s at 40 metres) and Tarfaya, Laayoune, Dakhla, and Taza (with annual average wind speed between 7.5 and 9.5 m/s at 40 metres) has excellent wind power potential.

According to a study by CDER and GTZ, the total potential for wind power in Morocco is estimated at around 7,936 TWh per year, which would be equivalent to about 2,600 GW. Morocco’s total installed wind power capacity at the end of 2023 was an impressive 1.5 GW.

140MW Windfarm near Tangiers in Morocco

The first wind farm in Morocco was installed in 2000 with a capacity of 50.4 MW in El Koudia El Baida (Tlat Taghramt – Province of Tetouan), situated 17km from the town of Fnidek. The annual production of the project is around 200 GWh, accounting for 1% of the national annual electricity consumption. In 2007, 60MW Amogdoul wind farm, on Cap Sim south of Essaouira, came online. This wind farm  was realized by the national utility ONE and  is producing around 210 GWh/year. Another landmark project is 140 MW at Allak, El Haoud and Beni Mejmel, near Tangier and Tetouan which was commissioned in 2010 with annual production of 526 GWh per annum.

Morocco has a strong pipeline of wind power projects to realize its  objective of 2.2 GW of wind power by 2030. Africa’s largest windfarm, at Tarfaya in Southwestern Morocco, having installed capacity of 300MW become operational in 2014. The Tarfaya windfarm, built at a cost of around $700 million has 131 turbines is meeting the power requirements of several hundred thousands people and reducing more than 900,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.

EnergiPro Initiative

Morocco’s national utility ONE is developing almost half of the planned projects while the other half is contributed by private investment through the “EnergiPro” initiative, which encourages industrial players to reduce their production costs by producing their own energy with projects up to 50 MW. As part of this initiative, ONE guarantees access to the national grid, and the purchase of any excess electricity produced at an incentive tariff, with different tariffs for each project.