Solar street lights for douars: PRDTS, 2026 finance law
Solar street lights for douars in Morocco: the 2026 finance law (MAD 20 billion), PRDTS, project sizes (51 douars, MAD 12.6 million), LS-A60 / LS-S60 kits.
The solar street light for village douars is now a State budget line in its own right: the 2026 finance law (law no. 50-25) funds a priority quick-impact programme for rural and peri-urban areas with a provisional envelope of MAD 20 billion, and the draft law was presented with solar street lights to be installed in the douars (Le Matin, 21 October 2025). A typical project runs from a few dozen light points for one douar to 180 luminaires for a rural commune, or 51 douars for MAD 12.6 million in Boulemane; it is bought by purchase order or by tender on marchespublics.gov.ma and sized on December irradiation, with a 60 Wp / 192 Wh street light per point.
What does the 2026 finance law provide for solar public lighting in the douars?
The 2026 finance law (law no. 50-25, promulgated on 10 December 2025) creates a priority quick-impact programme for rural and peri-urban areas with a provisional envelope of MAD 20 billion. When the draft law was presented, Le Matin summed up the rural chapter by reporting that solar street lights would be installed to strengthen public lighting in the douars, with rural electrification to be accelerated in parallel. The official summary from the Ministry of Economy and Finance does not mention solar street lights: the sentence is the press account of the draft-law presentation, and we cite it as such.
The funding vehicle is new. An Integrated Territorial Development Fund receives MAD 5 billion of payment appropriations in 2026 and MAD 15 billion of commitment authorisations on 2027 appropriations. It targets first the 542 emerging rural centres identified, 77 of them in a first programme and 36 model centres accelerated in 2026 (Al Maliya, 2026 finance law summary). For a commune this means agreements signed with the wilaya, the regional council, the province and the AREP, on the PRDTS model, and "solar public lighting" lines in the project sheets of the emerging centres.
What did the PRDTS 2017–2023 deliver, and why is solar taking over?
The Programme for the Reduction of Territorial and Social Disparities (PRDTS) is the precedent every technical department has in mind. Over 2017–2023 it programmed MAD 49.25 billion (≈ 50 billion), committed 44.05 billion (97 %) and disbursed 32.75 billion (74 %). It reached 14 million people in 1 066 rural communes, 83 % of them, delivered 14 000 km of roads, electrified more than 820 douars and connected 21 000 households to drinking water (government review, June 2022).
| PRDTS 2017–2023 sector | Programmed amount (MAD billion) |
|---|---|
| Rural roads and tracks | ≈ 34 (68 % of the programme) |
| Drinking water | 6 |
| Education | 5 |
| Rural electrification | 2 |
| Health | 2 |
| Total programmed | 49.25 |
The roads are therefore built, and the douars along them are waiting for lighting without wanting to wait for a grid extension. The budget argument points the same way: public lighting accounts for 30–40 % of a territorial collectivity's energy consumption and is generally its first budget item (IMANOR guide, February 2026), for a national stock that was already close to 1 million light points in 2016. A solar street light removes the trench, the cable, the switchboard and the energy bill; what remains is the pole, the luminaire and maintenance.
How big is a douar solar lighting project?
Three orders of magnitude, all readable in the notices published in 2026:
- Provincial programme. In Boulemane, the INDH (disparity-reduction programme, 2023 action plan) funds the solar electrification of 51 douars for MAD 12.6 million, ≈ MAD 247 000 per douar, under an agreement between the Wilaya of Fès-Meknès, the regional council, the province and the AREP; the type of equipment is not specified (H24info, 23 February 2026).
- Rural commune. The commune of El Maader El Kabir (Tiznit province) published notice 31/2026 for the purchase of solar LED floodlights with solar panels for public lighting: 160 units of 200 W and 20 units of 500 W, "Ingelec or equivalent", monocrystalline panel, IP65, 50 000 h, warranty of at least 1 year.
- Quarter or centre. Dcheira El Jihadia (notice 41/2026) is lighting its old quarters, Douar Jdid and Irhalen; the upgrading of the centre of Tizhoughrane (Tiznit province, September 2026) includes a "solar public lighting" lot; Figuig (05/2026/CF) is launching solar lighting works in all the ksour of the oasis; El Foqra (02/2026) speaks of "public lighting by solar energy panels"; AREP Béni Mellal-Khénifra (208/2026) groups solar public lighting works for several communes of the region.
Converted into light points from catalogue spacing, these projects look like this:
| Typical project | Streets to light | Model and pole | Spacing | Light points (calculated) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douar square and access street | 300 m of street + the square | LS-A60 on a 5 m pole; 2 LS-F100 floodlights on the square | 18 m | ≈ 17 + 2 |
| Medium-sized douar | 1.5 km of streets | LS-A60 (south) or LS-S60 (north, Atlas), 5–6 m pole | 18 m | ≈ 83 |
| Rural commune, several douars | 3 km of streets + 4 squares | LS-A60 / LS-S60 + LS-F100; LS-A80 on the main through-road, 6 m pole | 18–22 m | ≈ 140–170 |
These are worked examples: the final count depends on the photometric study (target NM EN 13201 class, road width, single-sided or staggered layout) and on the budget per douar.
What is the typical solar kit for a douar street?
A douar street or a track at ≤ 50 km/h falls in class M6 or P4–P5 (indicative selection per CEN/TR 13201-1), i.e. 3–5 lux maintained average. Two configurations cover most cases:
| Typical kit | LS-A60 all-in-one | LS-S60 split |
|---|---|---|
| LED module | 120 W nominal, ≈ 6 000 lm | 50–60 W head, 180–220 lm/W |
| Panel | 60 Wp mono, integrated, flat | 80–120 Wp separate, tilted on a bracket |
| Battery | LiFePO4 3.2 V · 60 Ah (192 Wh), in the head | LiFePO4 12.8 V · 30–50 Ah, pole base or buried (12 Ah economy version) |
| Pole | 4–6 m, existing or Moroccan | 5–6 m hot-dip galvanised conical, made in Morocco |
| Spacing | 15–20 m | per study, same order of magnitude |
| Autonomy | up to 12 h per night, 3–5 days of reserve at the default profile | 12 h per night, 3 rainy days, sized per site |
| Where | South: Souss-Massa, Drâa-Tafilalet, Guelmim | North, Rif, Middle and High Atlas |
Why this dividing line? Sizing is done on December: 3.62 kWh/m²/day on a flat panel in Agadir and 3.81 in Ouarzazate, against 2.97 in Fez and 2.58 in Tangier (PVGIS-SARAH2 2005-2020, JRC). Where December falls below 3 kWh/m²/day, the split panel tilted at 32° recovers +63 to +68 % of energy; our all-in-one vs split guide details this choice. Autonomy depends on irradiation (sizing on December) and on the dimming profile.
For the douar square, the weekly souk or the surroundings of the mosque, an LS-F100 solar floodlight (100 W nominal, IP66, remote control, 12–16 h) covers a whole yard; where equipment has already gone missing once, one point fitted with a dual 4G camera (LS-C100, Moroccan SIM) acts as anti-theft, provided 4G coverage is checked on site. The pole is of Moroccan origin (25 % safeguard duty on imported poles, HS 7308.90.10); the customs classification of the luminaire is confirmed by our freight forwarder. LALOGO supplies the LS-P6 pole drawings (5.7 to 7.8 m, hot-dip galvanised Q235, anchor cage included) to local fabricators, and the communes and douars page gathers the tender documents.
How does procurement work: purchase order, tender, marchespublics.gov.ma?
- Project registration. The commune, the provincial INDH or the AREP registers the operation in an agreement (emerging rural centre, PRDTS, INDH action plan); this is where the street length and the number of points are fixed.
- Study and specification (CPS). The design office or the technical department sets the NM EN 13201 class, the pole and the IP/IK rating ("specified by the client" in NM 06.8.001), then carries over the standard's requirements: 16 h of autonomy at ≥ 40 % flux at 25 °C, efficacy ≥ 130 lm/W, controller and battery ≥ 5 years, marking (unique ID, trademark, year, battery, the reference NM 06.8.001), a manual at least in Arabic. Reference to NM standards is mandatory in public procurement (law 12-06 art. 35, decree 2-22-431 art. 5).
- Award. Small orders often go through a purchase order after comparing three quotes; above that, the tender is published on marchespublics.gov.ma, where any supplier opens a free account, receives daily or weekly alerts ("lampadaire", "éclairage public", "solaire", by region) and submits its bid; a Moroccan entity identifies itself with its 15-digit ICE and its RC, a company not established in Morocco follows the dedicated path with FR/EN templates. Notices often name a brand "or equivalent": equivalence is demonstrated with datasheets, test reports and IES/LDT files.
- Delivery and acceptance. Cم marking (law 24-09, orders 3228-13, 2573-14 and 2574-14) and declaration of conformity, check of the NM 06.8.001 marking on each pole or module, switch-on test at dusk, handover of the Arabic manual and training of the commune's technician; the NM mark itself remains voluntary.
A word on the people involved: one Moroccan in three (33.7 %) lives in a rural area, elected officials and technicians in mountain communes often work in Amazigh, and lalogo.ma offers its home, catalogue and compliance pages in Tifinagh for the communal councils of Souss-Massa, Drâa-Tafilalet, the Atlas and the Rif.
Key takeaways
- 2026 finance law: MAD 20 billion (provisional envelope) priority programme for rural and peri-urban areas, MAD 5 + 15 billion Integrated Territorial Development Fund, 542 emerging rural centres; solar street lights for the douars were named at the draft-law presentation.
- PRDTS 2017–2023: ≈ MAD 50 billion, 14 000 km of roads, more than 820 douars electrified; lighting the douars is the logical next step after the roads.
- Project sizes: ≈ MAD 247 000 per douar in Boulemane (51 douars); 180 luminaires for a rural commune in Tiznit; ≈ 83 points for 1.5 km of streets at 18 m spacing.
- Typical kit: LS-A60 (60 Wp, 192 Wh, ≈ 6 000 lm, 4–6 m pole) in the south, LS-S60 with a tilted panel in the north and the mountains; Moroccan pole in both cases.
- Procurement: purchase order on three quotes for small operations, otherwise a tender on marchespublics.gov.ma with a specification aligned on NM 06.8.001 and Cم marking.
Sources
- Le Matin, "PLF 2026 : ce qui est prévu pour le rural, l'éducation, la santé et l'emploi", 21 October 2025
- Deloitte, main measures of the 2026 finance law (law no. 50-25)
- Maroc.ma, new generation of integrated territorial development programmes
- Ministry of Economy and Finance, Al Maliya – 2026 finance law summary
- Aujourd'hui le Maroc, PRDTS 2017–2023 review, 1 February 2024
- Finances News Hebdo, 14 million PRDTS beneficiaries, 8 June 2022
- H24info, Boulemane: solar electrification of 51 douars, 23 February 2026
- Moroccan public procurement portal
- IMANOR, guide "Application des normes dans les marchés publics – Éclairage public", February 2026
- IMANOR, NM 06.8.001, public-enquiry draft EP 52/2024 and catalogue entry
- Challenge, national public-lighting stock (2016)
- PVGIS 5.2, SARAH2 database 2005-2020, JRC
- Le360, safeguard measure on imported lighting poles
- DataReportal, Digital 2026 Morocco
- LALOGO 2026 datasheets (LS-A60, LS-S60, LS-F100, LS-C100, LS-P6).
