Morocco builds world's largest solar power plant

Morocco is set to become a renewable energy superpower when the world's largest concentrated solar power plant comes online.

Noor Factory No. 1 will be operational next month. Photo: Guardian.

According to IB Times, the Noor plant is located in Ouarzazate, known as the Door to the Desert, the capital of the province of the same name in central Morocco. The plant is part of a plan to make Morocco a country that uses half of its electricity from renewable energy in the next five years.

Noor (Arabic for light) is a complex of four large-scale solar power plants worth $9 billion. Plant No. 1 has 500,000 mirrors collecting sunlight, arranged in 800 rows, with a capacity of 160 MW of electricity per year, and will go into operation next month.

Each parabolic mirror is 12 meters high, connected by a system of steel pipes that act as a “heat transfer solution” (HFT) heated to 393 degrees Celsius to a heat engine. There, it will be mixed with water to create steam that drives turbines to generate electricity.

Plants 2 and 3 are expected to be operational in 2017, and plant 4 in 2020. At that time, the total area of ​​solar panels installed in Noor is expected to be equal to the area of ​​the capital Rabat (117 km2) of Morocco, and will be the world's largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant with a capacity of 580 MW per year, enough to supply one million households. The largest solar power plant currently is Solar Star located in Rosamond, California, USA, with a capacity of 579 MW per year.

Moroccan Environment Minister Hakima el-Haite said solar energy would have a similar impact on the region as oil exploration and production.

“We are not an oil producer. 94% of the electricity Morocco uses comes from fossil fuels and must be imported from abroad, which is a huge burden on the budget,” said Ms. el-Haite. Therefore, the Moroccan government decided to invest in the potential of solar energy.

Solar power will become Morocco's third renewable energy source by 2020, alongside wind and hydropower.

"We are very proud of this project," said Ms. el-Haite. "I consider this a very important solar power plant in the world." The Moroccan government hopes that in the future, it will be able to export solar energy to countries in the region and even Europe.

According to VnExpress