Morocco currently aims to increase the share of renewables in its total power capacity to 52% by 2030, 70% by 2040 and 80% by 2050. Morocco’s new targets are against a backdrop of the progress achieved in the expansion of both wind and solar during the initial phase of energy transition, according to GlobalData.

Pavan Vyakaranam, Project Manager at GlobalData, comments: “Morocco plans to achieve its 2030, 2040, and 2050 renewable energy targets through technological evolution in energy storage, green hydrogen, and decreasing renewable energy costs. The country is currently on track to achieve its 2030 renewable capacity target and will reduce its reliance on thermal sources such as coal and oil. The installed capacity share of coal will decline from 38.8% in 2020 to 22% by 2030 and the share of oil based thermal capacity will reduce to 9.2% by 2030 from 16.2% in 2020.”

The leading data and analytics company found that Morocco had a renewable installed capacity of 3.9 GW in 2020 and it’s estimated to have reached 4.3 GW in 2021, an increase of 9%. Morocco’s renewable installed capacity is forecast to reach 9.6 GW by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3% during 2020-2030. Wind power is expected to overtake hydro to become the largest renewable source during this period. The installed capacity for wind will increase from 1.4 GW in 2020 to 4.3 GW in 2030 at a CAGR of 11.5%. Installed capacity for solar (both PV and CSP) will increase from 734 MW in 2020 to 2.1 GW in 2030 at a CAGR of 11%. Hydropower capacity will increase form 1.8 GW in 2020 to 3.3 GW in 2030.

Vyakaranam adds: “Apart from developing large renewable projects, Morocco should focus on improving its existing renewable energy laws to enable development of small-scale grid connected renewable systems. Currently, the net metering legislation discourages investments in rooftop PV and small renewable systems other than for self-generation, as it connects to only 20% of their annual production to the grid.

“The country should also continue to award solar and wind projects such as the tender issued in January 2021 by the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) for the construction of a 400 MW solar power plant. The plant is part of the first phase of the Noor PV II project, under which several PV arrays will be built across eight different locations.”