Morocco’s first floating photovoltaic power plant, and the first in Africa, will be operational in a few weeks near Sidi Slimane. In collaboration with the Spanish company ISIGNERE, the Moroccan company Energy Handle was in charge of constructing the infrastructure. The project took a year to complete.
The plant’s installed capacity in the first phase will be 360 kW. According to Energy Handle, the infrastructure would consist of 800 photovoltaic panels that will create roughly 644 MWh per year. According to the corporation, this new technique will save electricity.
“Floating photovoltaics is a great opportunity for national agriculture for a sustainable development of the sector and better competitiveness,” adds the founding director of Energy Handle, Hassan Nait Bella.
As a result, the Sidi Slimane power station will free up ground space that would otherwise be occupied by a solar power station under a traditional method. Solar panels positioned at water level will also be cooled in the summer, according to the company. During this time, the efficiency of solar panels will have increased by more than 15%.
Energy Handle had already completed several solar energy projects in Morocco, including providing solar energy to 490 rural schools. In addition, the company is working on a solar energy project for the Moroccan House of Representatives, which is now under development.

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The National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water’s Director-General, Abdel Rahim El Hafidi, acknowledged yesterday, Thursday in Erfoud, that the photovoltaic solar plants of Erfoud, Zagora, and Missour have features that are distinct from traditional photovoltaic solar plants.

On the occasion of a technical visit to the solar photovoltaic station in Erfoud, El Hafidi stated that these stations contribute to the strengthening of solar photovoltaic energy production capabilities and play a significant role in maintaining the national grid’s balance, because “their achievement aims to absorb the shortage known to the regions at the end of the national grid, which is a major source of concern.”

El Hafidi, who was accompanied by a number of officials from the National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water, confirmed that the stations were completed in Erfoud, Zagora, and Mysore because these areas “suffer from the problem of low voltage in the national grid,” as well as the availability of great qualifications in the field of solar energy, with Erfoud’s estimated capacity of 2397 kWh/m2, “while Zagora’s capacity is estimated.

He went on to say that these plants, along with their qualifications and technological advancements in solar photovoltaic plant technologies, “enabled us today to reduce the cost of production by less than 30 centimes per kilowatt hour, whereas it was estimated at around 3.50 dirhams per kilowatt hour in 2009.”

El Hafidi, on the other hand, stated that the technical visit to Erfoud’s solar photovoltaic station was intended to inspect and determine the completion of the station’s construction work, as well as to see the results of technical experiments related to the station’s synchronization with the national grid and its exploitation.

He stated that all of the trials carried out at the station were successful, and that the second phase of the experiments would begin today, focusing on the evaluation of the plant’s performance and production, which will be synchronized with the exploitation.

He explained that this station is one of three placed at the end of the electricity network, which includes the 120-megawatt Nour Tafilalt solar complex.

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