Integrated Sustainability Assessment of Morocco’s Renewable Energy Transition: Comparative Analysis of Solar, Wind, and Hydropower Development

Morocco has emerged as a prominent renewable energy leader in North Africa and a significant contributor to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region through the extensive implementation of solar, wind, and hydropower technologies, supported by a sophisticated legal framework established since 2010. This study presents an integrated sustainability assessment of Morocco’s renewable energy transition through a structured comparative analysis of these three technologies across technical, economic, environmental, and socioeconomic dimensions. The methodology is built on a structured literature search and screening process covering 71 peer-reviewed articles and institutional reports published between 2010 and 2025. In order to facilitate the comparative sustainability assessment, sources were identified through Scopus, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and institutional repositories such as MASEN, IRENA, IEA, and the World Bank. Each technology was relatively evaluated using six sustainability criteria: energy security contribution, economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability, grid stability contribution, scalability potential, and socioeconomic impact. The assessment utilized quantitative indicators extracted from institutional databases and peer-reviewed literature with a standardized scoring framework and sensitivity analysis to determine the robustness of the technology rankings under alternative policy-priority scenarios. Technologies were comparatively scored on a standardized 1–5 scale based on quantitative proxies including installed capacity (MW), levelized cost of energy (USD/MWh), capacity factor (%), CO2 avoided (tCO2/GWh), jobs per MW, and dispatchability characteristics. A sensitivity analysis using five alternative weighting scenarios representing different policy priorities confirmed the robustness and consistency of the technology rankings. The comparative assessment indicates that solar energy achieved the highest scalability score (5/5), wind energy achieved the highest economic competitiveness score (5/5), and hydropower achieved the highest grid stability score (5/5), owing to its dispatchability and pumped-storage capability. The findings confirm that Morocco’s transition rests on technological complementarity rather than dominance by a single source. Structural challenges persist, including intermittency, storage insufficiency, grid modernization requirements, external financing dependency, and territorial disparities in socioeconomic benefits. The study proposes a replicable comparative sustainability assessment framework that can support renewable energy planning and policy decisions in Morocco and other emerging economies pursuing large-scale energy transitions.