The Moroccan government has begun construction on what, by its completion, will be the largest solar farm in the world.
The project is a bid to take advantage of the vast solar resource in the country and generate enough power to serve half of the citizens by the year 2020.
The first phase of the solar farm, Noor 1, will be completed this month. The Moroccan government aims to build four linked solar mega-plants, with Noor 2 and 3 going live in 2017. The word “noor” means, “light” in Arabic.
The completed plant, Noor 1 through 4, will take up as much space as Morocco’s capital city of Rabat and generate enough energy to power one million Moroccan homes.
The project will cost a total of $9 billion but, according to Moroccan environment minister Hakima el-Haite, Morocco currently exports 94 per cent of its power from resource-rich regions around the world at a great cost to the national budget. So, while the initial cost is high, an “in-house” source of energy will shrink costs in the long run and diversify the country’s energy production sources.
Morocco is ranked second in the world with regard to the potential for concentrated solar power projects. The average daily solar radiation in most African countries makes solar power one of the most attractive renewable energy solutions to ensure a secure supply of clean electricity to power economic and infrastructure growth on the continent.
