As 2015, the warmest year on record, draws to an end, and the commentators are debating the outcome of this month’s climate change summit in Paris COP21, Morocco is already readying to launch a very ambitious clean energy project, aptly named “Noor” (meaning light in Arabic).

With a potential capacity of 580 megawatts (MW), the $9bn Noor project is expected to cover an area equivalent to a city the size of the capital Rabat and provide electricity to 1 million homes. It is the fruit of the North African kingdom’s efforts in recent years to reduce its dependence on imported energy, which has been a chronic burden on state coffers.

The first phase of the project, Noor 1, is scheduled to start operating by the end of this year. Noor 2 and Noor 3 will follow suit in 2016 and 2017, while Noor 4 – which will use photovoltaic technology which converts solar energy into electricity – is open to tenders…[FULL STORY]