Moroccan Solar Plant Faces Year-Long Outage, $51 Million Loss

It has been almost a year since Noor Ouarzazate III stopped operating. The cause of this forced shutdown was a breakdown that occurred in its molten salt tank. "This shutdown should last until the end of the first quarter of 2025," indicates the Saudi group Acwa Power Company, the majority shareholder with 75% of the project company Acwa Power Ouarzazate III, created in March 2015. The remaining 25% is held by the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen).

Due to the extent of the breakdown, the plant did not resume service last November as planned. The postponement of the restart to the end of the first quarter of 2025 has forced the group to reassess the financial losses, initially estimated at $47 million, to over $51 million in 2024.

Commissioned since 2018, Noor Ouarzazate III operates using concentrated solar thermal (CSP) technology. Its gross capacity is 150 megawatts (MW) and its estimated annual production capacity is 515 gigawatt-hours (GWh). Ultimately, Noor 3 should help ensure the supply of electricity to nearly 500,000 Moroccan households.

The solar power plant is part of the Noor Ouarzazate solar complex, with a total capacity of around 580 MW. It was financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the French Development Agency (AFD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the World Bank, KfW and the European Union.