Morocco assessments floating photo voltaic panels to save lots of water, generate energy
By Ismail Bellaouali
Tangier, Morocco (AFP) Aug 30, 2025
Solar-baked Morocco, grappling with its worst drought in a long time, has launched a pilot venture aimed toward slowing water evaporation whereas concurrently producing inexperienced power utilizing floating photo voltaic panels.
At a significant reservoir close to the northern metropolis of Tangier, hundreds of so-called “floatovoltaic” panels defend the water’s floor from the blazing solar and soak up its mild to generate electrical energy.
Authorities plan to energy the neighbouring Tanger Med port advanced with the ensuing power, and if it proves a hit, the know-how may have far wider implications for the North African kingdom.
In keeping with official figures, Morocco’s water reserves misplaced the equal of greater than 600 Olympic-sized swimming swimming pools every single day to evaporation between October 2022 and September 2023.
Over that very same interval, temperatures averaged 1.8C larger than regular, which means water evaporated at the next price.
Alongside different components like declining rainfall, this has lowered reservoirs nationwide to about one-third of their capability.
Water ministry official Yassine Wahbi stated the Tangier reservoir loses round 3,000 cubic metres a day to evaporation, however that determine greater than doubles within the sizzling summer season months.
The floating photovoltaic panels might help reduce evaporation by about 30 p.c, he stated.
The water ministry has stated the floating panels signify “an essential achieve in a context of more and more scarce water assets”, even when the evaporation they cease is, for now, comparatively marginal.
Evaluation research are underway for an additional two related initiatives in Oued El Makhazine, at one among Morocco’s largest dams within the north, and in Lalla Takerkoust close to Marrakesh.
Comparable know-how is being examined in France, Indonesia and Thailand, whereas China already operates a number of the world’s largest floating photo voltaic farms.
– ‘Pioneering’ –
For the reason that Moroccan pilot programme started late final yr, greater than 400 floating platforms supporting a number of thousand panels have been put in.
The federal government needs extra, planning to succeed in 22,000 panels that may cowl about 10 hectares on the 123-hectare Tangier reservoir.
As soon as accomplished, the system would generate roughly 13 megawatts of electrical energy — sufficient to energy the Tanger Med advanced.
Authorities even have plans to plant timber alongside the banks of the reservoir to scale back winds, believed to exacerbate evaporation.
Local weather science professor Mohammed-Mentioned Karrouk referred to as it a “pioneering” venture.
He famous, nevertheless, that the reservoir is simply too giant and its floor too irregular to cowl fully with floating panels, which may very well be broken with fluctuating water ranges.
Official information exhibits water reserves fed by rainfall have fallen by practically 75 p.c previously decade in contrast with the Eighties, dropping from an annual common of 18 billion cubic metres to solely 5.
Morocco has up to now primarily relied on desalination to fight shortages, producing about 320 million cubic metres of potable water a yr.
Authorities purpose to broaden manufacturing to 1.7 billion cubic metres yearly by 2030.
Karrouk stated an pressing precedence needs to be transferring surplus water from northern dams to areas in central and southern Morocco which can be extra impacted by the years-long drought.
The dominion already has a system dubbed the “water freeway” — a 67-kilometre canal linking the Sebou basin to the capital Rabat — with plans to broaden the community to different dams.
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