AfDB Rates Morocco’s Energy Transition and Water Security Progress as “Very Satisfactory”

The African Development Bank has published its evaluation report on the Program for Economic Governance Support and Climate Change Resilience,rating Morocco’s progress in the energy and water sectors as “very satisfactory” — its highest performance classification.

The report documents a renewable energy capacity that exceeded 5.4 gigawatts in 2025,representing 45 percent of total installed electricity capacity,up from 42 percent the previous year. On the basis of this trajectory,Morocco has revised its 2030 renewable capacity target upward to 52 percent,accelerating the original schedule by three years. The country’s energy import dependency has fallen from 97 percent in 2008 to below 87 percent in 2024.

A series of legislative and regulatory reforms underpins this progress. Texts adopted in recent years have expanded private-sector participation in renewable energy,accelerated economic decarbonation,and established green electricity certificates of origin that allow companies to document and certify the renewable content of their industrial processes. Smart meter rollout is progressing,a regulatory framework for Energy Services Companies (ESCOs) has been put in place to stimulate efficiency investment,and a decree on self-production electricity has clarified the rules governing grid connection for distributed generation installations.

The National Electricity Regulator ANRE has been a key driver of market modernization. Since 2024,eight new regulatory decisions have been issued covering network access conditions,infrastructure hosting capacities,and tariffs for surplus renewable and self-produced electricity. The report identifies these measures as reinforcing competition and stimulating private investment in green energy — a direction that will be further advanced by the ongoing restructuring of ONEE,which ANRE formalized in February 2025 through a decision requiring accounting separation of ONEE’s production,transmission,and distribution activities.

On water,the Bank’s report documents an accelerated desalination program designed to address Morocco’s structural water stress. The country currently operates 17 desalination stations producing more than 350 million cubic meters per year. Four additional stations representing 567 million cubic meters of new capacity are under construction,and eleven further units have been programmed to cover potable,agricultural,and industrial demand.

The reform of the twelve Sociétés Régionales Multiservices (SRM),deployed in three phases between 2024 and 2025,has consolidated territorial water and electricity management under a new governance model designed to improve performance and accountability.

The AfDB concludes that Morocco is on track to meet or exceed the program’s targets,and frames the country’s integrated energy and water reform agenda as a model for climate resilience in the Middle East and North Africa region. The report’s positive assessment arrives in the same week as Morocco’s Natural Gas infrastructure investment announcement and participation of Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch in the Congo Basin Climate Summit in Nairobi,reinforcing a consistent narrative of Morocco as a country that has translated climate ambition into institutional and investment reality.