{"id":53137,"date":"2026-10-26T11:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T15:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=53137"},"modified":"2026-10-26T10:47:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T14:47:05","slug":"a-60-megawatt-wind-farm-is-already-running-near-dakhla-and-morocco-has-offered-35-more-farm-projects-that-will-depend-on-desalinated-atlantic-seawater-from-a-plant-still-under-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/a-60-megawatt-wind-farm-is-already-running-near-dakhla-and-morocco-has-offered-35-more-farm-projects-that-will-depend-on-desalinated-atlantic-seawater-from-a-plant-still-under-construction\/53137\/","title":{"rendered":"A 60-megawatt wind farm is already running near Dakhla, and Morocco has offered 35 more farm projects that will depend on desalinated Atlantic seawater from a plant still under construction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Morocco’s Agricultural Development Agency (ADA) opened a third bidding round in late June 2026 for 35 farm projects near Dakhla. The land, about 2,694 acres (1,090 hectares), will be watered with desalinated Atlantic seawater<\/a>. The plots sit in Bir Anzarane, inside a planned irrigated zone of roughly 12,355 acres (5,000 hectares).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On its current projects page, Nareva marks the Dakhla wind farm, rated at 60 megawatts, as in operation. The desalination unit next to it carries a different tag: under construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plots offered at Bir Anzarane<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the tender details, the 2026 round covers state-owned farmland in the province of Oued Ed-Dahab. Winners get long leases on the land, which stays in state hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One small project heads the list, followed by 28 medium projects on about 855 acres (346 hectares). Three large projects cover about 419 acres (169 hectares), and three more require grouping local producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those grouped projects take roughly 1,396 acres, or 52 percent of the 2,694 acres in the call. No list of winning bidders for this round has been released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A plant 47 miles north<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Morocco’s energy ministry places the desalination plant about 47 miles (75 kilometers) north of the city of Dakhla. Its design output is 100,000 cubic meters a day, about 26.4 million gallons. The ministry puts the investment at 1.7 billion dirhams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same ministry page<\/a> says the water should irrigate crops with very high added value. The project company is Dakhla Water and Energy Company. Nareva and International Power, a subsidiary of Engie, own it in equal parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nareva says the consortium was named provisional contractor in 2019, after a Ministry of Agriculture tender. Most plants of this kind use reverse osmosis, which relies on high-energy pumps and, as the U.S. Department of Energy notes, ends by “leaving behind highly concentrated salty brine”<\/a> on one side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nareva’s 60 megawatts already running<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Electricity was the first piece of the plan to change. The ministry granted the wind farm a provisional permit on June 8, 2021. At that point it was a 40-megawatt project costing 700 million dirhams, due to start in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nareva’s current project list shows a 60-megawatt wind farm “in operation” next to a desalination unit “under construction.” The company puts the total investment at $240 million. It gives the plant’s yearly output as 37 million cubic meters, about 9.8 billion gallons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Row
Wind turbines of the 60-megawatt Dakhla wind farm on flat desert ground near the Atlantic coast. (Photo: Nareva)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to the developer, around 80 percent of that water would go to the farm zone. The other 20 percent would supply drinking water for the region. On its English home page, Nareva calls the facility “the world’s first desalination unit powered exclusively by renewable electricity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its own wind turbines<\/a> are meant to cover the electricity the membranes need. Nareva’s page, though, gives no start date for the pumps, pipes and farm connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three rounds since 2022<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ADA launched the first call, tender number 30\/2022, on September 5, 2022. Bids were due by December 29 that year. The call covered 219 projects on 5,196.56 hectares, about 12,841 acres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That first notice listed 100 small projects, 78 medium ones and 34 large ones. Seven more required producers to work as a group. The small plots alone added up to about 1,874 acres (758 hectares).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second round followed in September 2024 with 79 projects on about 4,394 acres (1,778 hectares). Each call offers land within the same irrigation zone. For that reason, the acreage of the three rounds cannot simply be added together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brine headed for the Atlantic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Clean water at the plant gate is only part of the job. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s guide to water quality for agriculture<\/a> warns that “salts are added to the soil with each irrigation.” If they build up in the root zone, yields fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farmers handle that risk by applying extra water, so part of it drains below the roots and carries salt away. In a coastal desert, drainage and watering schedules matter as much as the supply itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the seawater leaves the plant as brine. The UN Environment Programme says most processes create about 1.5 liters of polluted concentrate per liter of drinking water. If it is not diluted properly, that waste can degrade coastal and marine ecosystems<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“New technologies are being developed to tackle these issues, but in the meantime it’s important to raise awareness of the trade-offs with desalination,” said Birguy Lamizana, a UNEP wastewater expert. Labs are testing ways to desalinate water without liquid waste<\/a>. None of them is part of the Dakhla design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First water deliveries remain undated<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

None of the official pages gives a date for the first deliveries of desalinated water to farms. The energy ministry still lists 2024 as the wind farm’s planned start, a date that has already passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency has not published how many plots from the 2022 and 2024 rounds were awarded. It has not said how much land is planted today either. Even plant size varies by source, with an earlier Nareva sheet giving 90,000 cubic meters a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakhla also lies in Western Sahara, which the United Nations lists as a non-self-governing territory. Its final status is still unresolved. Like other new desalination projects<\/a>, this one will be measured by the water it actually delivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figures come from the ADA’s tender notices, Nareva’s project pages and Morocco’s energy ministry. The plant’s capacity, cost and power supply are taken from the last two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Nareva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morocco’s Agricultural Development Agency (ADA) opened a third bidding round in late June 2026 for 35 farm projects near Dakhla. … <\/p>\n

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