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Saudi-listed ACWA Power has been awarded the contracts to develop and operate the Noor Midelt II and Noor Midelt III solar power projects with a combined capacity of 800 megawatts (MW) in Morocco, according to local media reports.
The two solar photovoltaic solar power projects, each with a capacity of 400 MW, will be integrated with battery energy storage systems (BESS) offering total storage capacity of 602 MWh and capable of discharging up to 230 MW of power over a two-hour period, the reports by local Arabic news website Al3omk and others said.
The projects will be implemented under a Build–Own–Operate (BOO) model within a 30-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN).
Noor Midelt II and Noor Midelt III were originally designed as hybrid photovoltaic/concentrated solar power (PV-CSP) plants of 500 MW capacity each with storage.
The 800 MW Noor Midelt Phase 1, designed as a PV-CSP hybrid plant, was awarded to a consortium of EDF Renewables, Masdar, and Green of Africa in 2019. In February 2024, Reuters reported that construction was yet to start on the $2 billion project with Morocco’s Energy Ministry and grid operator ONEE calling for replacing the project’s CSP component with PV or BESS.
In March 2024, ACWA Power had confirmed a forced outage at its 150 MW Noor III CSP plant in Ouarzazate, Morocco due to a leak in the molten salt hot tank, which underpins the plant’s seven-hour thermal storage system. In April 2025, MASEN confirmed the resumption of operations at the plant on its LinkedIn account.
ACWA Power operates and maintains seven power projects in Morocco with a combined installed capacity of 765 MW representing a total investment of nearly 12 billion Saudi riyals ($3.2 billion).
(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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