Seventh Solar Power Station in the World

The Noor Ouarzazate Solar Power Station is a thermal solar power station under construction near Ouarzazate in Morocco. After its launch in 2016 with a capacity of 160 megawatts, it became the seventh-largest solar power station in the world, following the five leading American stations and the Spanish Solaben plant. It is considered the largest concentrated solar power facility in the Global South and houses the largest concentrated solar power farm in the world.

The Noor station consists of a field of 480 hectares of curved mirrors (parabolic-trough) with a capacity of 160 megawatts. The project, which costs over 600 million euros, uses approximately half a million mirrors. It is expected to generate 370 gigawatt-hours annually. The project is managed by the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy, and it was built by a commercial consortium with a Saudi majority. The design consumes a large amount of water for cooling and mirror cleaning, amounting to 1.7 million cubic meters annually, which is equivalent to 4.5 liters per kilowatt-hour. This water consumption is twice the cooling water consumption in coal plants and 23 times the amount of water per kilowatt-hour consumed in dry coal plants. The electricity value is $0.19 per kilowatt-hour. The station began operation on May 10, 2013, after a ceremony led by King Mohammed VI. The African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank are involved in financing. The station has an energy storage capacity of 3 hours of production, thanks to molten salts. A tariff agreement signed on November 19, 2012, with the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water guarantees a price of 1.62 dirhams per kilowatt-hour ($0.189 per kilowatt-hour) for the station’s output. The station was inaugurated by the King on February 4, 2016.

Noor 3 – Solar Tower in Ouarzazate at Dusk
In 2015, construction began on the second phase of the project to increase the total capacity of the station to 500 megawatts. The Noor project will use concentrated solar power tower technology, with a capacity between 150 and 200 megawatts, in addition to the ability to store energy for 3 hours of production for nighttime use.

Noor IV
With an investment of over 750 million Moroccan dirhams, Noor Ouarzazate IV produces 72 megawatts of power, using solar technology to generate electricity directly from solar radiation captured by photovoltaic cells. The maturity of this technology in a rapidly growing market makes it a competitive solution for Morocco.