- A new report from the Attaqa platform revealed that the shutdown of Morocco’s largest solar power plant, Noor III, has cost the operating company over $51 million in losses.
- The Attaqa platform noted that repeated technical failures and issues have led to delays in completing the largest solar power plant in Morocco.
A new report from the Attaqa platform revealed that the shutdown of Morocco’s largest solar power plant, Noor III, has cost the operating company over $51 million in losses over the past year.
The 150-megawatt Noor III concentrated solar power plant remains out of service nearly a year after a forced shutdown caused by a molten salt tank leak.
Saudi company ACWA Power, the project’s developer, expected the shutdown to last until the end of Q1 2025. However, initial assessments, according to earlier reports, had indicated that the plant would be offline until November 2024, with ACWA actively evaluating solutions to address the leak.
The company also reported losses of SAR 191.6 million ($51.1 million) in 2024 due to the outage. The Attaqa platform noted that repeated technical failures and issues have led to delays in completing the largest solar power plant in Morocco.
ACWA Power previously revealed a 5.98 per cent decline in its revenues for the first quarter of 2024, but its profits rose by 9.8 per cent year-on-year, reaching SAR 296.7 million.
Noor III operates using concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, generating 150 megawatts with thermal energy storage capacity for 8 hours, and was developed based on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis.
Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex is the largest concentrated solar power project in Morocco, and it’s key to providing clean electricity and achieving significant climate progress.
The project supports Morocco’s plans to increase the share of renewable energy in its national electricity mix to over 52 per cent by 2030.
The complex includes four plants with a total capacity of 582 megawatts, helping to offset more than 800,000 tons of emissions each year.
However, a previous investigation showcased that despite significant ambitions, Morocco’s plans for energy transition are lagging in the field of solar energy, with only about 830 megawatts installed compared to the planned 2000 megawatts.
After Noor III shut down, experts raised the issue of Morocco’s continued reliance on concentrated solar power despite the risks involved, particularly when it comes to its storage.