ACWA Power Wins 800 MW Noor Midelt II & III Solar Projects in Morocco

The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN) has awarded contracts to ACWA Power to develop and operate the Noor Midelt II and Noor Midelt III solar power projects, with a combined capacity of 800 MW, in Morocco.

The two solar photovoltaic power projects, each with a capacity of 400 MW, will be integrated with battery energy storage systems (BESS), offering a total storage capacity of 602 MWh and capable of discharging up to 230 MW of power over two hours. 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 project—planned as a hybrid combining photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP)—was awarded in 2019 to a consortium comprising EDF Renewables, Masdar, and Green of Africa. As of February 2024, construction on the $2 billion facility had yet to begin, with Morocco’s Energy Ministry and the national grid operator ONEE proposing to replace the CSP element with either PV or battery energy storage (BESS). In March 2024, ACWA Power reported a forced outage at its 150 MW Noor III CSP plant in Ouarzazate following a leak in the molten salt hot tank, a critical component of the plant’s seven-hour thermal storage system. By April 2025, MASEN announced that operations at the plant had resumed. ACWA Power operates and maintains seven power projects in Morocco with a combined installed capacity of 765 MW, representing a total investment of nearly SAR12 billion (US$3.2 billion).