Ouarzazate solar complex: Morocco poised to make history soon, WB

   Morocco is poised to make history soon when the first phase of one of the world’s largest concentrated solar power plants starts generating electricity, said the World Bank (WB) in an article on its website.

 "Morocco is poised to make history soon when the first phase of one of the world’s largest concentrated solar power plants starts generating electricity. When fully operational, it will produce enough energy for more than one million Moroccans, with possibly extra power to export to Europe," it noted, adding that the Noor-Ouarzazate power complex is putting Morocco on the map as a solar superpower.

 The Bank stressed that the project underlines the country’s determination to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, turn to increased use of renewable energy, and move towards a low carbon development strategy.

 The WB also noted that the Noor project is Morocco’s first utility-scale solar energy complex and a critical step in the Moroccan Solar Energy Program, which aims to install 2 GW of solar power by 2020. 

The three-plant Noor-Ouarzazate complex expects to achieve over 500 megawatts (MW) installed capacity, ultimately supplying power to 1.1 million Moroccans by 2018. It is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 760,000 tons per year which could mean a reduction of 17.5 million tons of carbon emissions over 25 years, it explained, underlining that efforts were designed to accelerate cost reduction and the commercial adoption of large-scale low-greenhouse-gas emitting generation technologies.

MAP 21 November 2015