A £96m project will promote cleaner and more efficient energy in Morocco.

The Clean and Efficient Energy Project will be co-financed by a US$125 million (£80m) World Bank loan and a US$23.95 million (£16m) loan from a global initiative, the Clean Technology Fund.

It will support Morocco’s state-owned electricity and water company Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) to develop its first set of three mid-sized solar plants.

They will have a total capacity of 75MW and are part of the country’s strategy to achieve 14% of installed capacity from solar energy by 2020.

The new plants will help with the voltage drops and regular outages which currently affect 120,000 people.

Part of the funding will also be used to install smart meters and advanced metering infrastructure.

World Bank Energy Manager Charles Cormier said: “The project will finance the installation of time-of-use meters, allowing over 292,000 people to take advantage of lower electricity costs during periods of the day with low electricity demand.

The World Bank has helped 22 projects in Morocco.