Taqa Morocco’s $14bn Pivot, Echoes a New Era for Water Security and Clean Energy: a Social Security
Taqa, Morocco, is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in its history as it prepares to absorb a $14 billion (130billion dirham) investment programme in partnership with Nareva and the Mohammed VI Investment Fund. More than a corporate restructuring, the project marks how Morocco intends to deliver essential services from electricity to drinking water in a decade defined by climate pressure, population growth and rising public demand for reliable infrastructure.
Under the new structure, Taqa Morocco and Nareva will each hold 42.5% of the joint projects, with the Mohammed VI Investment Fund and other public entities retaining the remaining 15%. This consortium model departs from earlier approaches in which companies managed assets independently. Analysts say the endeavour echoes a broader political message that focus infrastructure is now seen as a shared national project, balancing private sector efficiency with public oversight.
The most striking change is the company’s move into water infrastructure, a domain that increasingly defines the everyday realities of Moroccan households. Massive desalination plants, totaling around 2.5 million cubic metres of drinking water per day, and new water highways that can transport 2.2 million cubic metres daily, promise to ease shortages in drought-hit regions. Families, farmers and businesses will benefit from these projects, easing the anxieties around water supply that have intensified over the past decade.
Communities from Agadir to Casablanca stand to benefit from more consistent access to potable water; and especially local industries like agriculture, tourism, etc., may gain stability that supports job employments. But then again, the social impact will also hinge on affordability, environmental safeguards and how the desalination-driven model reshapes coastal ecosystems. Also, transforming the energy landscape.
Energy is the other pillar of the expansion. Taqa Morocco plans to acquire the existing 400 MW Tahaddart gas-fired plant and develop 1,100 MW of new combined-cycle gas turbine capacity, along with 1,200 MW in new solar and wind projects. This build-out is not only about megawatts. It plays into Morocco’s geopolitical calculus, reducing exposure to imported fuels, reinforcing its credentials as a renewables leader, and positioning the country as a potential power exporter to Europe.
A planned 3 GW high-voltage direct current transmission line connecting the south and centre will strengthen the national grid and enable remote regions, often overlooked in development plans, to plug into the country’s energy transition. This is the politics of scaling-up.
Major infrastructure projects in Morocco increasingly operate at the intersection of state strategy and private investment. By bringing the Mohammed VI Investment Fund into the shareholding structure, the government is summoning a long-term political commitment to energy and water security; and a desire for unified governance of assets, critical to national stability.
That political dimension also carries expectations such as transparency, equitable distribution of services and measurable improvements in daily life. As Morocco continues to urbanize and push regions forward for greater parity, the new Taqa-Nareva structure will be judged on engineering milestones and social outcomes.
As an organisation rebuilt for the future, the scale of the programme is forcing Taqa Morocco to reinvent itself. Legal advisors from Naciri & Associés A&O Shearman are steering the complex structuring work, but the operational implications are even broader; new business units, upgraded technical capabilities and a management culture more aligned with large-scale multi-sector infrastructure.
The Morocco government sees this partnership as a representational one, more than a corporate deal. Because it aligns economic ambition with the daily needs of its people for water that flows reliably, more secure energy that is cleaner and infrastructure strong enough to support a rapidly changing society.
