Expansion of the molten salt storage system at Noor Ouarzazate III (NOORo III) Morocco’s 150-megawatt (MW) concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, has been completed as part of efforts to strengthen long-term operational reliability, the project’s contractor said on Saturday.

The expansion project was undertaken by Chinese contractors SUMEC Energy and Lanpec (Shanghai Lanbin Petrochemical Equipment Co), both part of China National Machinery Industry Co (Sinomach).

Lanpec had built the thermal energy storage tanks for the fourth phase of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai.  

NOORo III utilises solar tower technology, and includes a molten salt thermal storage system that provides 7.5 hours of dispatchable power. 

It is 75 percent-owned by Saudi's ACWA and 25 percent by Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN).

The plant was taken offline in February 2024 following a leak in its molten-salt hot storage tank and resumed operations only after nearly a year in April 2025.

Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy had also initiated construction of a second thermal storage tank to support the existing system and improve overall operational resilience, according to an April 2025 report by Spain-based media platform Atalayar.

NOORo III forms part of the wider Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex, located in Ouarzazate city in southeastern Morocco with a combined installed capacity of approximately 580 MW.

The plant delivers around 530 million kWh of clean electricity to the national grid every year - enough to power over 1 million households - while cutting CO2 emissions by 230,000 tonnes annually.

(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon) (anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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