Home » Energy » Greenpeace Urges Morocco to Lift 20% Cap on Selling Surplus Solar Power
Solar panels stretch across an arid landscape in Morocco.
Marrakech – Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa this Tuesday called on Morocco to reform Law 82.21, urging the government to move the country’s self-generation framework from merely regulating solar power to actively expanding it.
The group argued that Morocco has built a strong foundation for renewables, grounded in existing projects, institutional expertise, substantial solar and wind potential, and “a clear orientation toward decentralized generation.” By 2024, renewable sources accounted for 45% of installed electricity capacity and contributed around 27% of total generation.
Greenpeace framed these achievements as “an opportunity to move into a new phase” – an opening to broaden the reach of that success by enabling households, farmers, cooperatives, and small and medium-sized businesses to “participate meaningfully in energy generation and benefit from its rewards,” rather than leaving those gains concentrated in large-scale projects alone.
Decentralized generation sits at the center of that shift. Solar panels installed on homes, shops, and farms let electricity be produced close to where it is consumed, cut bills, and reduce the kingdom’s dependence on fossil fuel imports. Greenpeace tied the model to Morocco’s target of raising renewables to 52% of installed capacity by 2030.
Law 82.21, enacted in February 2023, established a legal framework for self-generation regardless of energy source, voltage, or capacity. Greenpeace called it a positive step that defined the rights of the different parties and opened the grid to self-generators.
But the group noted that Article 1 limits the law’s objective to the “regulation” of self-generation, leaving it closer to a model built around self-consumption alone.
According to Greenpeace, the most significant obstacle is the cap on selling surplus power. Article 12 allows self-generators to sell no more than 20% of their annual generation to the grid operator. The restriction limits not what can be fed into the grid but what the producer can be paid for.
As a result, Greenpeace warned, “the grid may benefit from clean electricity whose generation was financed by a household or business” without the owner being compensated for the full amount.
That cap weakens the economics of solar for households with moderate consumption while favoring higher-income users who can consume more of what they generate, the group argued, cautioning that it “risks concentrating the benefits among those with greater financial means.”
Such a result would run counter to a just energy transition, Greenpeace insisted, while also pointing to the absence of a clear tariff for surplus fed into low-voltage grids and calling it difficult for a household or business to invest or secure financing without knowing the return.
It flagged the 11 kW threshold separating the declaration regime from grid-connection approval as too low for multi-unit buildings or farms that need to run cold storage. And with more than a quarter of the law’s provisions devoted to violations and penalties, the group warned that the text “risks sending a punitive message rather than building trust.”
The reforms Greenpeace urged form a single package. Removing the 20% cap tops the list, alongside a fair and transparent tariff, a higher 11 kW threshold, and simpler grid-connection procedures.
The group called for the processing of applications to be handed to an entity independent of distribution operators, warning of conflicts of interest when operators review connections that could cut their own sales.
Greenpeace further pressed for reduced fines, completion of the distribution grid code and storage rules, and limits on using smart meters to disconnect generation except where technically necessary.
“Removing the 20% cap is a key priority,” the group concluded, but it argued the measure would fall short without fair tariffs, simple procedures, and independent oversight working together.
Read also: Morocco Ranks Among Africa’s Most Competitive Renewable Energy Markets
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