Near Tanger Med, the Kingdom has brought online what is being described as Africa’s largest operational floating photovoltaic plant.
The project sits on the Oued Rmel dam reservoir and has a capacity of 13 MWp, spread across three floating solar islands covering roughly 72,870 square metres
And here’s what makes it interesting:
The panels are literally floating on the water.
Instead of taking up huge areas of land, the installation uses the surface of an existing reservoir.
And that’s not just about saving space.
Floating solar can also help reduce water evaporation by shading part of the reservoir, while the water can help keep the panels cooler and improve their performance. Research on floating solar in Morocco is increasingly looking at exactly this energy + water combination.
But this particular project has an even bigger job.
It’s designed to supply electricity to the Tanger Med port complex, helping reduce the carbon footprint of one of Morocco’s most important industrial and logistics hubs.
And the engineering wasn’t exactly easy.
The reservoir can experience water-level variations of up to 44 metres.
So the solar panels can’t simply be placed there and forgotten.
The floating system uses specially designed anchoring and mooring technology to adapt to those massive changes in water level.
13 MWp.
72,870 square metres.
Three floating solar islands.
And enough annual production to correspond, as an indicative comparison, to the electricity consumption of around 17,000 people in France.
But there’s a bigger story here.
Morocco has been investing heavily in renewable energy for years.
Now it’s experimenting with where solar power can be installed.
On land?
Yes.
In industrial zones?
Absolutely.
And now…
On water.
That’s important for a country dealing with two major challenges at the same time:
Energy security and water stress.
And Morocco isn’t stopping with one project.
A 2026 scientific study looking at floating solar across 58 Moroccan dams found significant potential for combining renewable electricity production with reductions in water evaporation.
So this project near Tanger Med could be more than just a cool-looking solar installation.
It could be a prototype for a much bigger strategy.
Imagine Moroccan reservoirs becoming energy-producing surfaces…
Without needing to dedicate the same amount of additional land to solar panels.
And for young Moroccans, there’s another part worth watching.
The renewable-energy sector needs engineers, technicians, electricians, software specialists, environmental scientists, project managers and researchers.
So when Morocco builds projects like this…
It’s not just about producing electricity.
It’s also building an industry.
And that industry is going to need people.
Africa’s largest floating solar plant is now sitting on Moroccan water.
13 MW today.
But the real question is much bigger:
If Morocco can turn its reservoirs into both water infrastructure AND renewable-energy infrastructure…
how much bigger could this technology become across the Kingdom?
