- Title: Morocco bids for solar future with world's biggest complex
- Date: 11th November 2016
- Summary: OUARZAZATE, MOROCCO (NOVEMBER 10, 2016) (REUTERS) AERIAL VIEW OF NOOR SOLAR POWER STATION ENTRANCE TO POWER STATION SIGN READING IN ENGLISH, ARABIC, FRENCH AND BERBER: "NOOR OUARZAZATE COMPLEX" VARIOUS OF SOLAR PANELS AT NOOR 1 PAN OF NOOR 1 FIELD VARIOUS OF SIDE VIEW OF NOOR 1 SOLAR PANELS SOLAR PANEL SOLAR PANEL FIELD VARIOUS OF SOLAR PANELS (SOUNDBITE) (English) CEO OF ACWA POWER INTERNATIONAL, PADDY PADMANATHAN, SAYING: "This was a huge brave decision. At the time when they took it 2009-10 everybody was laughing. It was a very expensive, it was a very brave decision to be quite honest about it. The King of Morocco decided, he said 'look OK my country has to move towards renewable energy and that is the future'. OK today obviously it wasn't such a silly decision. It was an absolutely compelling decision." SOLAR PANELS REFLECTING SUNLIGHT VARIOUS OF SOLAR PANELS REFLECTING SUNLIGHT (SOUNDBITE) CEO OF ACWA POWER INTERNATIONAL, PADDY PADMANATHAN, SAYING: "I see no reason why renewable energy cannot be supplying electricity pretty much day and night as we need it by 2050 which is the target by when we need to be carbon neutral but for me the ultimately the goal must be to decarbonise." VARIOUS OF SIDE VIEW OF SOLAR FIELD NOOR 1 VARIOUS OF SOLAR PANELS (SOUNDBITE) (English) CEO OF NOOR 1, ABDULLAH MATI, SAYING: "We are a land without resources, natural resources; our only natural resource is sand. We are trying to maximize the usage of our natural resources and the sun is one of these resources. So solar energy for us is a future for Morocco and a future for all the world." SOLAR PANEL FIELD STEAM AND SOLAR PANELS NOOR III SOLAR PANELS VARIOUS OF SUN SHINING ON PANEL MACHINERY ON PANEL VARIOUS OF NOOR III SITE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CEO OF GLOBAL RENEWABLE ASSETS AT ACWA POWER, CHRIS EHLERS, SAYING: "Before the end of next year so that will contribute overall in terms of Moroccan production, roughly if I get the numbers right some 10% of the overall Moroccan power consumption which is quite substantial." VARIOUS OF NOOR 1 SITE ATLAS MOUNTAINS
- Embargoed: 26th November 2016 16:00
- Keywords: morocco climate change solar power energy environment
- Location: OUARZAZATE, MOROCCO
- City: OUARZAZATE, MOROCCO
- Country: Morocco
- Topics: Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA0015802FT9
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:On the edge of the Sahara desert, Morocco is building one of the world's biggest solar power plants in a project largely funded by the European Union.
The huge 160-megawatt first phase of the Noor plant near the town of Ouarzazate will be joined by Noor II and Noor III respectively. Once completed, they are expected to generate 510MW of power.
At Noor, curved mirrors totalling 1.5 million square meters (16 million square feet) - the size of about 200 soccer pitches - capture the sun's heat in the reddish desert.
Developed and held by Saudi conglomerate ACWA power, the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen) and others, the plants are expected to be completed in 2017.
Noor will be the largest operating solar complex in the world, said CEO of ACWA Paddy Padmanathan.
"This was a huge brave decision. At the time when they took it 2009-10 everybody was laughing. It was a very expensive, it was a very brave decision to be quite honest about it. The King of Morocco decided, he said 'look OK my country has to move towards renewable energy and that is the future'. OK today obviously it wasn't such a silly decision. It was an absolutely compelling decision," said Padmanathan.
Noor will cost 2.2 billion euros ($2.45 billion) and generate 510 MW, enough power for a city of almost 2 million people. Morocco aims to expand at other desert regions to 2 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2020 at a cost of $9 billion.
As a developer and investor, Padmanathan said that renewable energy investments are now becoming lucrative due to decreasing costs, adding that the global goal has to be moving towards "decarbonisation".
"I see no reason why renewable energy cannot be supplying electricity pretty much day and night as we need it by 2050 which is the target by when we need to be carbon neutral but for me the ultimately the goal must be to decarbonise," said Padmanathan.
Noor 1 chief, Abdullah Mati, said that due to the lack of resources, Morocco is using its main resources, the sun and sand to produce energy.
"We are a land without resources, natural resources; our only natural resource is sand. We are trying to maximize the usage of our natural resources and the sun is one of these resources. So solar energy for us is a future for Morocco and a future for all the world," said Mati.
Morocco aims to get 52 percent of its electricity from clean energy such as wind and solar by 2030, up from 28 percent now.
"Before the end of next year so that will contribute overall in terms of Moroccan production, roughly if I get the numbers right some 10% of the overall Moroccan power consumption which is quite substantial", said chief of renewable assets at ACWA Chris Ehlers.
Unusually for a desert, Morocco has water from the Atlas mountains to help clean off dust. And in some countries, power lines from remote parts of the Sahara could be vulnerable to attacks - Noor's pylons have red spikes to discourage intruders.
At Noor, the sun's rays bounce off the mirrors, heat a fluid that in turn heats a vast tank of molten salt that can drive a turbine to generate electricity even after dark. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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