Morocco’s ‘largest rooftop solar plant’ nears completion with cold storage

LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email
The solar plant is already producing up to 60% of the factory’s electricity needs. Credit: EBRD

Casablanca-based confectionery and chewing gum producer Maghreb Industries is close to fully implementing a 1,361kWp rooftop solar system combined with an ice-based storage system on the roof of its new factory.

Maghreb CEO Hakim Marrakchi, who said he was inspored by rooftop solar on the roof of a Belgian chocolate factory, sought funding from the EBRD, which then provided a €4.6 million loan through its Finance and Technology Transfer Centre for Climate Change (FINTECC).

Adding cold storage also turned out to be a critical factor in allowing the solar plant to function well with the factory.

Marrakchi said: “For an efficient energy system to work, you need to have a balance between energy produced and energy consumed. Our energy needs vary widely and we wouldn’t always need all the energy the solar plant would produce. However, you can’t inject excess electricity into the national grid in Morocco, so we needed to find a way to store it.”

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

Not ready to commit yet?
  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

FINTECC also provided a €360,790 incentive grant and technical support financed by the European Union to implement a range of renewable-energy and energy-efficient technologies at the factory. Efficiency was critical given that Morocco imports a significant amount of its energy and is exposed to global price fluctuations as well as decreasing government subsidies.

Maghreb claims this is the largest rooftop PV project in Morocco. Meanwhile, the ice-based cold storage system allows the factory to store power during off-peak hours and use it during peak hours to cut costs. The factory also has energy management software, a heat-recovery chimney and external insulation.

Marrakchi said the project has not yet been fully implemented, but the solar plant is already producing up to 60% of the factory’s electricity needs, offsetting use of gasoline and grid electricity.

He also hopes that the project will inspire other businesses in Morocco to explore solar power and improve energy efficiency, since several other companies have already approached Maghreb asking for help on implementing similar plants.

Read Next

September 12, 2025
Dutch BESS operator Return has acquired four ready-to-build (RTB) projects in Germany, while agrifood tech and renewables investor N2OFF has added BESS to a solar project it is developing there.
Premium
September 8, 2025
Energy-Storage.news Premium speaks with Ryan Hledik, Principal at the Brattle Group, and Lauren Nevitt, Senior Director of Public Policy at Sunrun, on the shaky future of California’s Demand Side Grid Support distributed storage programme.
September 5, 2025
Energy-Storage.news proudly presents our sponsored webinar with Qcells + Geli, on modelling and realising maximum profits from commercial & industrial (C&I) battery storage systems.
September 3, 2025
During the morning of 30 August 2025, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) responded to a possible vegetation fire in the area of independent power producer (IPP) Arevon Energy’s California Flats solar-plus-storage project.
September 2, 2025
Energy-Storage.news speaks with Karina Hershberg, Associate Principal at engineering firm PAE Engineers, on integrating microgrids with sustainable building design.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter