Morocco Plans to Start Building 1 GW Offshore Wind Farm by 2029

June 17, 2025, by Adrijana Buljan

Africa’s first offshore wind farm is set to be built in Morocco, according to plans unveiled on 10 June at the Third United Nations Oceans Conference (UNOC3) in France.

Photo source: Union for the Mediterranean (UfM)

The project, planned to have an installed capacity of 1 GW, will be built near Essaouira, with construction beginning by 2029.

This was announced by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), which held a session on finance and innovation as sustainable blue economy accelerators during the Mediterranean Day at UNOC3.

Morocco’s first offshore wind farm will be supported by the Blue Mediterranean Partnership (BMP), a multi-donor fund promoted by the UfM that mobilises investments in sustainable blue economy projects in the Southern Mediterranean and Red Sea areas, to which Spain formally signed an EUR 8.5 million contribution on 10 June, bringing the fund’s total to EUR 22 million.

The BMP fund will back two more projects alongside the offshore wind farm in Morocco: the restoration of a coral ecosystem in Jordan and the development of a wastewater treatment facility in Egypt.

The funds from the BMP pot will be used for necessary technical assistance and project feasibility study grants, according to information shared by UfM.

Last year, plans for an offshore wind farm in Essaouira emerged as the European Investment Bank (EIB) opened a tender for technical assistance for an offshore wind feasibility study, supporting the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) in investigating the feasibility of building offshore wind farms off the country’s Atlantic coast.

The tender followed a cooperation agreement EIB and Masen signed in 2022 for a EUR 2 million grant to finance a feasibility study into an initial small-scale offshore wind pilot project in Morocco.

Morocco Eyes Development of Its First Offshore Wind Project Off Atlantic Coast

Planning & Permitting

According to the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy, studies have shown that the country has a high potential to exploit offshore wind, particularly along its Atlantic coast, where wind speed is high and where the shallow waters are suitable for fixed-bottom offshore wind.

Estimates of the technical offshore wind potential in Morocco by the World Bank Group show the country holds 200 GW of potential offshore wind capacity, and “only” 22 GW of it is most suitable for fixed-bottom wind turbines, while the remaining 178 GW are shown to be best tapped into through floating wind technology.