Access to clean and affordable energy in rural African regions can contribute greatly to social development. Hence, this article proposes the design, simulation, and optimization of a stand-alone photovoltaic system (SAPV) to provide non-polluting electrical energy based on a renewable source for a rural house located in Tazouta, Morocco. Real monthly electrical demands and hourly climatic conditions were utilized. An initial design process indicated that, with a 1080 W p total capacity of PV modules and 670 Ah of battery storage, the proposed SAPV system was able to meet a considerable part of the dwelling load with an average solar fraction of about 79.1%. The rest of the energy demand was ensured by a diesel generator (DG). Also, a life cycle analysis of the PV system revealed that the life cycle cost is 10,195.56 USD and the unit electricity cost is 0.57 USD/kWh for an initial investment of 4858.68 USD. Thereafter, an optimum design based on Homer Pro software was carried out indicating that lower PV capacity can decrease the unit energy cost to 0.356 USD/kWh while reducing the solar fraction to 54.9%.Energies 2019, 12, 4735 2 of 16 society [1]. Access to electricity has not only been identified as an essential element for socio-economic development, but also contributes towards poverty reduction in society [2]. However, electricity generation and its supply are not distributed equally in the world, especially in rural regions [3][4][5] that also suffer from the low quality of the power supply distribution services [6,7]. Yet, most of African countries, for instance, are still underdeveloped both in terms of infrastructure and power network, despite large, ongoing renewable energy projects in the region. In fact, there are about 620 million people in this continent that have no access to electricity, which is equivalent to two-thirds of Africa's population [8].Of the 315 million people in rural Africa who are expected to have access to electricity by 2040, only 30% of them will be connected to national networks. The others will be connected to off-grid or mini-grid power systems [9]. Kofi Annan, chairman of the Africa Progress Panel and former UN secretary general urged African governments and their partners to do their utmost to combat the enormous energy deficit in Africa. This joint appeal was launched on Monday, 13 March 2017, at the ADB headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on the occasion of the launch of the Africa Progress Panel report entitled "Light, Energy, Action: Electrifying Africa", which calls for adopting all existing solutions-network and off-grid systems-to illuminate Africa and power it [10].It is no great surprise as this continent has an abundant potential of solar, hydro, wind, and geothermal sources of energy and contains significant quantities of natural gas. Some countries even have coal deposits. The great challenge for Africa is to exploit and manage these resources and make them contribute to its economic development and ease for the inhabitants. Morocco, which belongs to the north...