Australia Network News
The first phase of world’s largest Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) was launched by Morocco on Thursday. His Majesty Mohammed VI of Morocco inaugurated the plant.
The three-plant Noor-Ouarzazate CSP complex called NOORo is located in the town of Ourzazate, on the edge of the Saharan desert. “Poor 1,” the first grid of the plant is stretched across thousands of acres and is capable of generating 160 megawatt of power. In total, it will provide 580 megawatts of power on completion. New grids “Noor II” and “Noor III” will be expanded later by adding more mirrors.
On completion, the solar power station will be equivalent to the country’s capital city by the time it is completed in 2018. It will provide power to 1 million lives. It is estimated that it will lower the carbon emissions by 760,000 tons per year, according to a report by Kansas City Infozine.
Currently, it has 5,00,000 curved mirrors, each 40 feet tall, which will concentrate the sun rays on a pipeline carrying fluid, raising temperature upto 739 degrees Fahrenheit. This heat will strike the water sources, which will turn into steam to run the turbines and to create energy. The plant has a plenty of solar energy. The plant will also produce light during the night. “The heat from the fluid can be stored in a tank of molten salts,” NASA wrote, according to The Verge.
The country aims to get its 42 percent energy sources from renewable resources such as solar, wind, and hydropower. Right now the country is dependent on imports, for its 97 percent energy consumption.
“Between now and [the next conference], many projects will have come to light and we will prove that we can match our energy demands with renewables,” the country’s energy minister, Abdelkader Amara, said during a meeting in December.
The Concentrated solar power system could be able to generate 11% of the world’s power generation by 2050, according to a report by The World Bank.
