Morocco’s next industrial constraint may not be factories, land or investors.
It may be infrastructure.
On 27 July 2026, ONEE’s board approved a 2026–2030 investment programme exceeding 248 billion dirhams, one of the largest electricity-and-water infrastructure programmes in Morocco’s history. Around 206 billion dirhams is allocated to electricity and 42.1 billion dirhams to drinking water.
The scale reflects what is happening across the Moroccan economy.
Gigafactories require electricity.
Data centres require electricity and water.
Automotive plants require dependable utilities.
Aerospace expansion requires uninterrupted industrial power.
Tourism requires water.
New cities require both.
Morocco has become increasingly successful at attracting investment.
ONEE now has to ensure the underlying system can absorb what comes next.
Industry Cannot Grow Faster Than The Grid
An investor can build a factory surprisingly quickly.
Building the electricity infrastructure required to power an entire industrial region can take much longer.
Generation must exist.
Transmission lines must carry the electricity.
Substations must transform it.
Distribution infrastructure must reach the site.
Backup capacity must protect operations.
A multinational considering a major Moroccan investment therefore asks a simple question long before construction begins:
How much dependable power can you give us?
The answer increasingly influences investment decisions.
Morocco cannot promise unlimited industrial expansion while treating electricity infrastructure as something that will catch up afterwards.
Capacity has to arrive before the factory needs it.
11.6 GW Changes The Scale
ONEE’s new programme includes approximately 11.6 gigawatts of additional renewable-energy capacity, alongside storage, flexibility and transmission-network investments. Around 72% of the overall investment programme is expected to be financed directly by the private sector.
That changes the scale of Morocco’s energy transition.
Renewables are no longer simply an environmental programme.
They are becoming industrial infrastructure.
A battery manufacturer selling into Europe increasingly needs to understand the carbon footprint of its production.
The same applies to automotive components, steel, chemicals and other manufactured exports.
Low-carbon electricity can therefore become part of Morocco’s commercial proposition to investors.
A factory choosing Morocco should eventually be able to say not only that production is competitive.
It should be able to say that production is increasingly powered through a lower-carbon system.
Storage Is Becoming As Important As Generation
Solar panels generate when the sun is available.
Wind turbines generate when conditions allow.
Factories operate according to production schedules.
Those timelines do not always match.
This is why ONEE’s emphasis on storage and flexibility is important.
Morocco can install enormous renewable capacity and still experience pressure when supply does not align with demand.
Storage allows part of the excess electricity produced during favourable periods to be used later.
Pumped-hydropower storage will be one component. In July, the World Bank approved $265 million for the Ifahsa pumped-storage project near Chefchaouen, designed to strengthen grid flexibility as more renewable generation enters the system.
The industrial lesson is simple.
Factories do not purchase theoretical renewable capacity.
They purchase reliable electricity.
Transmission Is The Invisible Megaproject
New generation receives most of the attention because wind farms and solar installations are visible.
Transmission infrastructure is less glamorous.
It may be more important.
The strongest renewable resources are not necessarily located beside Casablanca, Kenitra, Tangier or other major industrial centres.
Electricity therefore needs to travel.
Transmission networks must expand before regional production can translate into usable industrial power.
Without that expansion, Morocco could create renewable capacity that cannot always reach the places where demand is growing fastest.
ONEE’s programme explicitly includes reinforcement and expansion of the transmission network.
This is one of the most important components of the entire 248-billion-dirham plan.
The electricity highway matters as much as the electricity factory.
Water Is Now Industrial Policy
The 42.1 billion dirhams allocated to drinking-water infrastructure should not be treated as a separate social programme.
Water is increasingly an economic input.
Food factories need it.
Hotels need it.
Cities housing industrial workers need it.
Some high-technology manufacturing processes require significant water treatment and supply reliability.
Data-centre growth can also add demand depending on cooling technology.
Morocco therefore faces a difficult equation.
Industrial activity must increase without intensifying unsustainable pressure on conventional water resources.
That is one reason desalination has become so important.
In 2025, ONEE produced approximately 1.417 billion cubic metres of drinking water, including 72.5 million cubic metres from seawater desalination.
That desalination share is set to become much larger.
Casablanca Shows The Size Of The Water Challenge
The Casablanca desalination project illustrates the new scale.
Its eventual capacity is expected to reach 300 million cubic metres annually.
By late July 2026, the first phase, designed for 200 million cubic metres, had reached approximately 81% completion, with commissioning scheduled for February 2027.
This is not simply additional household water.
Reliable metropolitan water supply supports one of Morocco’s largest concentrations of economic activity.
Casablanca and its surrounding industrial regions cannot continue expanding indefinitely without stronger water resilience.
The same logic applies elsewhere.
Industrial zones and urban growth should increasingly be planned together with water availability rather than assuming supply will always follow development.
Electricity Demand Is Already Accelerating
ONEE’s latest figures show how quickly the system is being tested.
Morocco’s electricity demand reached around 49 TWh in 2025, increasing 7.4% from the previous year.
Peak electricity demand reached 7,990 MW in 2025 before setting another record of approximately 8,400 MW in July 2026.
That 410 MW increase in peak demand within roughly a year is a significant signal.
And many of Morocco’s largest new industrial projects have not yet reached full production.
Battery plants.
Expanded automotive facilities.
Aerospace factories.
New tourism capacity.
Water desalination.
Digital infrastructure.
Electricity demand is therefore likely to remain a central economic question.
The 248 billion dirhams is not being invested ahead of imaginary demand.
The pressure is already visible.
Private Capital Must Carry Much Of The Expansion
Perhaps one of the most important numbers in the programme is 72%.
That is the share expected to be financed directly by private investors.
This changes ONEE’s role.
The Office does not need to finance and own every new generation asset itself.
It increasingly becomes part of a wider architecture involving private developers, banks, institutional investors and major energy users.
That can accelerate deployment and distribute financial risk.
But private investment requires bankable projects.
Clear contracts.
Predictable regulation.
Credible buyers.
Transparent tariffs.
Grid access.
Investors will provide capital when the economics are understandable.
The energy transition therefore depends as much on financial architecture as engineering.
Factories Will Want Predictable Prices
Availability is only half the electricity question.
The other half is cost.
An industrial company competing internationally needs some visibility over future energy expenses.
A factory making products for export cannot simply pass every electricity-cost increase to customers.
Long-term power-purchase arrangements can provide more certainty for large industrial users.
Renewable generation can potentially strengthen this model because much of its cost is concentrated upfront rather than depending continuously on imported fuel.
Morocco can turn that characteristic into a competitive advantage.
Industrial investors should increasingly see the country as a location where future power costs can be planned, not merely where today's electricity price looks attractive.
Data Centres Raise A New Question
Morocco also wants to expand artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure and sovereign data-centre capacity.
That adds another category of industrial demand.
A major data centre consumes electricity continuously.
Unlike some factories, it cannot simply pause operations when grid conditions tighten.
Reliability is fundamental.
This means Morocco’s digital ambitions and energy strategy are becoming inseparable.
Every major announcement about AI infrastructure should therefore generate a corresponding question about power.
Where will the electricity come from?
How much renewable generation will support it?
What grid capacity is available?
What happens during peak demand?
Digital infrastructure may appear weightless.
Its physical energy requirements are not.
Suppliers Can Benefit From The 248 Billion Dirhams
The investment programme also creates an industrial opportunity around the infrastructure itself.
Cables.
Transformers.
Electrical equipment.
Pumps.
Control systems.
Engineering.
Construction.
Maintenance.
Digital monitoring.
Water-treatment technology.
Storage systems.
Moroccan companies should capture more of this value where they can meet the required technical standards.
A country receives one level of benefit when it builds infrastructure using mostly imported equipment.
It receives much more when local companies become qualified suppliers to the infrastructure programme.
Those suppliers may later export their expertise to African markets undergoing similar electricity and water expansion.
The 248 billion dirhams can therefore create industrial capacity while supporting industrial capacity.
52% Is Becoming A Milestone, Not The Finish Line
Morocco previously targeted renewable energy representing 52% of installed electricity-generation capacity by 2030.
ONEE’s new plan aims to move beyond that level as early as 2028.
That acceleration is important.
But percentages should not become the final objective.
A renewable system must remain reliable.
Competitive.
Connected.
Flexible.
Capable of supporting industrial demand twenty-four hours a day.
Morocco’s energy transition will ultimately be judged by what the economy can do with the electricity created.
A renewable megawatt powering a productive factory creates a different economic effect from capacity sitting behind a constrained network.
Integration becomes the critical word.
248 Billion Dirhams Will Decide More Than Energy
ONEE’s 2026–2030 programme appears at first to be an electricity-and-water investment plan.
Economically, it is much larger.
It will influence how many factories Morocco can accommodate.
How quickly gigafactories can expand.
Whether desalination can protect urban growth.
Whether data centres can operate reliably.
Whether exporters can reduce their carbon intensity.
Whether industrial regions can continue growing without infrastructure becoming the bottleneck.
Morocco has spent the past decade proving that it can attract industrial investment.
That success creates the next challenge.
Every additional factory needs power.
Every expanding city needs water.
Every renewable project needs transmission.
Every intermittent energy source needs flexibility.
248 billion dirhams will therefore not simply determine the future of ONEE.
It will help determine how much more industry Morocco can realistically handle before 2030 — and how competitive that industry can become once it arrives.