In Morocco, launched the world's largest solar concentrator

500,000 parabolic mirrors arranged in 800 rows

The ceremonial opening of the world's largest power plant with a concentration of solar energy (concentrating solar power, CSP) - 160 MW Noor I station was held 20 km from the town of Ouarzazat in the Sahara desert.

500,000 large 12-meter parabolic mirrors are arranged in 800 rows, and the entire installation is clearly visible even from space. Recently, NASA published photographs of the relevant section of the desert before and after the installation of mirrors (12/24/2013 and 12/14/2015). The first photo has already prepared a site for construction.


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Noor I - only the first phase of construction, it is one of the three fragments of the future power plant. Together with Noor II (200 MW, cost 810 million euros) and Noor III (150 MW, 645 million euros), the entire installation will generate 510 MW of energy. The construction of Noor II and Noor III has already begun.

The synthetic thermal oil at the heat transfer station (HTF) heats up to 393 ° C, so it does not have time to cool down for 7-8 hours and gives steam even when the clouds cover the sun. Even at night, that is, solar power works around the clock.

Mirrors hum a little when they turn over the sun every few minutes. In its final form, the power plant area will be 2500 hectares - more than the area of ​​the Moroccan capital, the city of Rabat.

Thanks to this gigantic installation and other projects, Morocco plans in 2020 to receive 42% of all the necessary electricity from the Sun, significantly reducing the import of hydrocarbons. Morocco does not have its own oil and gas fields, but now it receives from them 94% of all electricity.

And if you build several hundred more of these solar stations, you can provide electricity not only for your country, but also for the whole of Europe - then Morocco will become the leader of the global solar energy industry. But this is so far only in the fantasies of King Mohammed VI.

Technical characteristics of the project Noor I