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Solar power: Morocco blazes ahead | Engineer Live
A look into Morocco’s successes in developing renewable energy production:
In February 2016, Morocco launched Noor 1, the first phase of the largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in the world, which aims in time to produce enough energy for more than one million Moroccan households.
In November 2011, the World Bank approved US$297 million in loans to Morocco to help finance the Ouarzazate 500MW Concentrated Solar Power Plant Project. A US$200 million loan was provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and another US$97 million loan came from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), a US$5.6 billion funding window of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF).
Ultimately aiming to supply power to 1.1 million Moroccans by 2018, the Moroccan Solar Agency (MASEN) Ouarzazate solar complex is among the largest CSP plants in the world, as part of a plan to deploy 2,000MW of solar power generation capacity by 2020. Ouarzazate Phase 1 will generate the first 160MW. It is anticipated that the plant will reduce the country’s energy dependence by about 2.5 million tons of oil, while also lowering carbon emissions by 760,000 tons per year…[FULL STORY]