King Mohammed VI has inaugurated what is set to claim the title of the world's largest concentrated solar power plant. Three projects that, together with a final photovoltaic phase (Noor IV), will make Noor Ouarzazate, in Morocco, the world's largest multi-technology solar energy production site.
3,500 football pitches. One million homes powered. 240,000 tonnes of CO2 avoided every year. 9 billion dollars of investment. These are the figures behind the world's largest solar plant in the Sahara, just inaugurated in Morocco. It is called Noor I (in Arabic, "noor" means "light"), located in Ouarzazate, an ancient crossroads of desert caravan routes. Alongside Morocco's King Mohammed VI, as well as delegated minister Hakima El Haite, was also Ségolène Royal, her French counterpart.
Construction of this first plant, which will benefit from 3,000 hours of sunshine a year, had begun in spring 2013.
In Ghessate (province of Ouarzazate), the inauguration ceremony of the first plant in the "Noor-Ouarzazate" solar complex, christened "Noor I", coincided with the official start of construction work on the second and third plants of this mega-project (Noor II and Noor III). Ouarzazate is a Moroccan city at the western edge of the Sahara Desert, facing the Atlas Mountains.
The ceremony took place in the presence of the head of government, the presidents of both chambers of Parliament, royal advisers, government members, representatives of the states and international institutions that contributed to the financing of this mega-project, and members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Morocco.
When completed, it will be as large as the entire Moroccan capital. It is financed by a predominantly Saudi-led consortium, with Spanish participation as well, along with the African Development Bank, Climate Investment Funds and several European financial institutions. The total investment amounts to 3.9 billion dollars: 1 billion from the German bank KfW, 596 million from the European Investment Bank, and 400 million from the World Bank.
The construction of Noor I is led by the Spanish consortium TSK-Acciona-Sener. Moroccan companies have played primarily a support role, providing services related to construction, engineering, installation and logistics.
The system uses movable mirrors that track the path of the sun to capture the heat it emits, which is needed to melt the salts contained in the plant's circuit. The heated molten salt is then pumped to drive steam turbines that generate electricity in impressive quantities, even at night.
The concentrated solar power plant consists of 500,000 parabolic concentrators arranged in 800 rows (covering 2,500 hectares). Their layout was designed to minimise damage caused by sandstorms and desert winds. The plant is of the second generation, thanks to the use of molten salt technology to improve storage capacity and therefore the energy output of the plant. As regards Noor 1, the planned storage capacity is approximately 3 hours.
On the occasion, the chairman of Masen (Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy), Mustapha Bakkoury, presented the progress of the Moroccan solar plan, the key milestones in the development process of the first plant in the Ouarzazate solar complex, and its prospects. "By contributing to the diversification of national energy sources," Bakkoury explained, "the Noor I plant, whose construction works were launched by the king on 10 May 2013, fulfils the sovereign's intention to optimise the use of Morocco's natural resources, preserve its environment, sustain its economic and social development, and secure the future for coming generations."
The Noor project will also contribute, according to the authorities, to the economic and cultural development of the region, to the opening up of many nearby villages, and to the creation of new tourism products.
The construction of Noor I took 30 months and mobilised more than 2,000 workers. It covers a surface area of approximately 480 hectares and is based on concentrating solar thermal technology, with parabolic trough collectors and a storage capacity of 3 hours at full power. The project mobilised investments of 7 billion dirhams.
The second and third plants in the Noor Ouarzazate solar complex (Noor II and Noor III) will have a capacity of 200 MW and a minimum storage capacity of seven hours; the Noor II plant (810 million euros) will be developed using concentrating solar thermal technology with parabolic trough collectors and will be built over a surface area of 680 hectares.
Mobilising investments of 645 million euros, Noor III will have a capacity of 150 MW with nearly 8 hours of storage.
The three projects, together with a final photovoltaic phase (Noor IV), will make Noor Ouarzazate the world's largest multi-technology solar energy production site, with a capacity of 580 MW and a total investment of more than 24 billion dirhams, not counting the shared infrastructure developed by Masen and Onee to meet logistical needs.
This is therefore only the first phase of a broader plan, which envisages the installation of 580 MW by 2020 through the concentrated solar power projects Noor 2 (200 MW) and Noor 3 (150 MW), and the photovoltaic project Noor 4. Running in parallel with the Ouarzazate plants is the Noor Midelt project, launched on 1 January by Masen, which envisages a further 400 MW installed by combining concentrated solar power and photovoltaics. According to the government's ambitious target, launched in 2009, the entire Noor solar plant network will have a minimum capacity of 2,000 MW by 2020.