Morocco has launched a project to test huge banks of floating solar panels that can generate electricity while also protecting valuable water supplies from evaporation.
The North African country has been in the grip of its worst drought in decades.
As well as a lack of rainfall, the evaporation of existing water supplies is a constant problem.
Data shows that Morocco’s water reserves lost the equivalent of 600 Olympic-sized swimming pools every day between October 2022 and September 2023.
That period saw average temperatures 1.8C higher than usual, adding to the evaporation problem.
The country’s reservoirs are currently only filled to around one-third of their overall capacity on a national level.
One major reservoir near the northern city of Tangier loses around 3,000 cubic metres a day to evaporation, with the figure more than doubling in hot summer months.
Late last year, the government installed over 400 floating platforms with several thousand ‘floatovoltaic’ panels at the reservoir.
As well as generating renewable power from the sun, the floating rafts of panels cover large parts of the surface of the water, helping to reduce evaporation.
Pioneering panels could cut water evaporation by a third
Morocco water ministry official Yassine Wahbi said that the floating panels could in some situations help to reduce water loss from evaporation by as much as 30%.
The Tangier reservoir is too large and irregular to be completely covered with panels, as fluctuations in the water level could potentially damage them in some areas.
The aim is to install around 22,000 panels, which would cover around 10 hectares of the 123-hectare surface.
Even with limited coverage, the water ministry said that this and similar projects represent “an important gain in a context of increasingly scarce water resources”.
Trees will also be planted alongside reservoirs and lakes to cut down wind, which can contribute to evaporation.
Plans for other floating panel sites are currently being assessed at one of Morocco’s largest dams, situated at Oued El Makhazine in the north of the country, and the Lalla Takerkoust lake near Marrakesh.
As well as helping to prevent water loss from evaporation, the solar panels also generate electricity.
At the Tangier reservoir, the system is expected to generate around 13 megawatts of power once completed.
This would be enough to power the whole of the nearby Tanger Med industrial port complex.
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