Capital Note · Water Systems · Capital & Finance

The world's largest fully renewable powered desalination plant reached financial close

A 613 million euro plant outside Casablanca will supply drinking water to 7.5 million people, powered entirely by a dedicated wind farm. The renewable pairing, not the plant's size alone, is what makes the structure exportable.

May 2025 · Africa

Retrospective analysis of May 2025. Published August 2026.

A seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant

The Al Baidaa Desalination Company consortium, ACCIONA holding 50 percent alongside Green of Africa and AfriquiaGaz, signed financing on 8 May 2025 for a seawater desalination plant at Sidi Rahal in the Greater Casablanca area, a total investment of roughly 6.5 billion Moroccan dirham, about 613 million euro. The plant will produce 300 million cubic meters of water annually, serving approximately 7.5 million people, and will draw its power entirely from a dedicated 360 megawatt wind farm at Bir Anzarane, with 47 percent of that farm's output allocated to the facility. ACCIONA will operate and maintain the plant under a public private partnership with Morocco's national water and electricity authority over a 27 year concession, with construction scheduled to complete in 2028.

The Signal

The Al Baidaa consortium, led by ACCIONA, signed financing on 8 May 2025 for a 613 million euro desalination plant near Casablanca that will draw its entire power supply from a dedicated 360 MW wind farm, serving roughly 7.5 million people over a 27 year concession.

Why It Matters

Pairing a desalination plant's full power demand with a dedicated renewable asset, rather than drawing from the grid, removes a variable that has historically made desalination projects vulnerable to fuel and carbon price swings over a multi decade concession. That structure is what makes the economics underwritable at this scale and tenor, not the plant's size by itself.

The System Connection

This is the water and energy sequencing question we have tracked in frontier markets made concrete at scale, a water project that solved its own power dependency by building the generation asset alongside it rather than treating grid power as a given.

Capital Implication

A 27 year concession with power cost effectively fixed by ownership of the generation asset is a materially different risk profile for infrastructure lenders than a conventional grid connected plant, and should price accordingly.

What We Are Watching

  • Whether the renewable pairing structure gets replicated on subsequent desalination financings in water stressed, renewable resource rich markets.
  • Construction progress against the 2028 completion target.
  • Water tariff and offtake terms as they become public, which will determine whether the structure is genuinely replicable or dependent on Morocco specific support.
Sources reviewed
Last checked August 2026
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