Morocco is betting on the sun with five new solar plants to be built by 2020.

The aim is twofold: on the one hand, to make up for a scarcity of oil and increase the country's renewable energy production by 42 per cent by the end of the decade; on the other, to export this energy to neighbouring Europe.

The first photovoltaic plant, "Nour 1", which cost more than 900 million dollars, will be operational as early as 2015 and will be located in the southern city of Ouarzazate, in the Dadès valley, at the junction of the Draa valley (in the central region of Morocco), on the edge of the sandy Sahara desert.

The Dadès valley

The total capacity of the five structures to be installed over the next six years will be 2,000 megawatts, against a total investment of 9 billion dollars. The project is co-financed by the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank.

An example of desert use for large-scale photovoltaic plants, in California. Photo: ©Getty Images

According to Mustapha Bakkoury, the head of Morocco's Solar Energy Agency (MASEN), who announced the construction, the power of the sun will soon be joined by that of the wind. To achieve the increase in production, a series of wind farms to be erected along the Atlantic coast is indeed planned for the near future.