Floating solar deployed on Moroccan dams can act as dual-purpose infrastructure by generating electricity while preventing water loss through evaporation, according to new research.
A research team from the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, Morocco, assessed the techno-economic and water-saving potential of a floating solar installation deployed at the Hassan Addakhil Dam in Morocco. Their findings are presented in the research paper Unlocking the potential of floating PV in water-stressed regions: A techno-economic analysis for the Hassan Addakhil Dam, Morocco, available in the journal Scientific African.
The dam is located in southeastern Morocco in a region the paper describes as “a semi-arid site affected by high solar irradiation and significant water stress.” It adds that land constraints facing ground-mounted solar plants in Morocco and the country’s structural water stress, exacerbated by high evaporation rates in its hydroelectric reservoirs, makes floating PV on dam reservoirs relevant from both energy and water perspectives.
The team assessed the techno-economic potentail of the floating PV installation by combining a thermo-electrical model, FAO-56 Penman-Monteith evaporation calculation and a discounted cash-flow analysis within a single framework. The model assessed three reservoir coverage ratios, of 5%, 10% and 15%.
Khalid Ezzaza, corresponding author of the research paper, told pv magazine that the deployment was found to be economically viable, achieving a real levelized cost of electricity of $0.045/kWh and an internal rate of return of 7.36%.
“By covering 15% of the reservoir surface, the system can suppress 70% of the evaporation over that area, representing water savings of up to 4.18 million cubic meters per year,” he explained.
First-year electricity generation ranged from 316.2 GWh to 948.6 GWh, depending on the coverage scenario.
Ezzaza added that floating photovoltaic modules operate at temperatures approximately 5 to 7 degrees lower than ground-mounted systems during the summer period, offering a natural cooling effect that results in an annual energy gain of 10.6% compared to conventional-land based installations.
The primary barriers to profitability of such projects lies in the initial capital expenditure, Ezzaza explained, with the high costs largely attributed to the floating structures, anchoring systems and need for corrosion-resistant materials in floating PV installations.
“Our analysis reveals that a 10% to 15% decrease in capital expenditure would result in a significant increase in the internal rate of return,” he told pv magazine. “To overcome this obstacle, we recommend driving technological innovation and leveraging economies of scale to reduce structural costs, which will enhance the attractiveness of these projects to private investors.”
The research paper adds that floating solar technology is both technically feasible and strategically important to overcome the challenge of facing the region.
Ezzaza explained that floating PV can directly addresses Morocco’s dual challenge of increasing renewable electricity production while mitigating water stress in semi-arid regions, while also avoiding the need for vast land acquisition and thereby limiting land-use conflicts with agricultural activities or ecological conservation.
“Our simulations across 5%, 10%, and 15% coverage scenarios demonstrate that large-scale deployment introduces no additional technical penalties, proving the strong scalability of the model for national infrastructures,” he explained.
According to the research paper, the study addresses the lack of an integrated, site-specific methodology for Moroccan dam reservoirs that jointly evaluates the thermal, electrical, economic and water-saving performance of floating PV systems under real semi-arid environmental conditions.
Ezzaza added that the results of the study are highly relevant to support water and energy planning across North Africa and similar regions. “Our integrated assessment framework is entirely transferable and can serve as a reference to justify floating PV deployment on reservoirs facing comparable climatic constraints,” he told pv magazine.
Morocco deployed 204 MW of new utility-scale solar capacity in 2025, taking cumulative utility-scale capacity to 1.29 GW. Work began on the 305 MW Noor Atlas solar program in March.
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