ACWA Power Wins Contracts for 800 MW Solar Projects in Morocco

Saudi-listed renewable energy developer ACWA Power has secured contracts to develop and operate two major solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in Morocco - Noor Midelt II and Noor Midelt III - with a combined capacity of 800 MW.

Each project will have an individual capacity of 400 MW and will be integrated with battery energy storage systems (BESS), offering a total storage capacity of 602 MWh. The system will be capable of discharging up to 230 MW over two hours, according to reports by local Arabic news outlets, including Al3omk.

The projects will be developed under a Build–Own–Operate (BOO) model and backed by a 30-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN).

Shift from CSP to PV and Storage

The Noor Midelt II and III projects were originally planned as hybrid photovoltaic-concentrated solar power (PV-CSP) plants with 500 MW capacity each. However, amid delays and a shift in Morocco's solar strategy, the CSP component has been replaced with PV and battery storage.

A similar change was seen in the earlier Noor Midelt Phase 1 project, which is also an 800 MW PV-CSP hybrid, which had been awarded in 2019 to a consortium of EDF Renewables, Masdar, and Green of Africa. As of early 2024, construction on that project had not begun. Reports indicated that Morocco’s Energy Ministry and national grid operator ONEE had recommended dropping the CSP component in favour of solar PV and BESS due to cost and complexity concerns.

In March 2024, ACWA Power faced a forced outage at its 150 MW Noor III CSP plant in Ouarzazate, following a leak in the molten salt hot tank, which is a key part of the plant’s seven-hour thermal storage system. In April 2025, MASEN confirmed that the plant had resumed operations.

With these new projects, ACWA Power now operates seven power projects in the country with a combined installed capacity of 765 MW, representing an investment of nearly SAR 12 billion (USD 3.2 billion).