Morocco's has the ambitious and expensive plan to draw 40 percent of its energy needs from the limitless power of its blazing sun by 2020. In 2009, Morocco announced a $9 billion project to build five solar energy plants to harness the sun's rays and produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020 and will soon announce which international consortium has won the bid to start work on a 160-megawatt solar power plant to be built in the southern city of Ouarzazate.
The Ouarzazate plant is expected to be operational by 2014, with plans to boost its capacity to 500 megawatts by 2015.
But solar energy does not come cheap.
The Ouarzazate plant was originally set to cost $440 million, but has since ballooned to at least $1.25 billion.
Funding comes from an array of international sources, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank and a consortium of German companies promoting solar energy across North Africa called Dii.
Similar projects are planned in Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, but none are nearly as advanced as in Morocco, where the 2,500 hectare (10 square mile) Ouarzazate site has been marked out on the edge of the desert.
Morocco's plants will be using concentrated solar power.
In the Morocco facilities, endless rows of parabolic mirrors will heat up a synthetic oil, which will then produce steam to turn turbines to produce the electricity.
“In just six hours, the earth’s deserts receive more energy from the sun than all humanity consumes in one year.”
Dr Gerhard Knies Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Desertec Foundation
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