Energy Cartography
The Solar Compass
580 MW. 3,000 hectares. The world's largest concentrated solar plant.
In the Saharan foothills south of Ouarzazate — the same landscape where Lawrence of Arabia and Game of Thrones were filmed — Morocco built a solar plant the size of 3,500 football fields. Noor-Ouarzazate is not photovoltaic panels. It is mirrors — 500,000 parabolic troughs and 7,400 heliostats that concentrate sunlight onto receivers filled with molten salt heated to 565°C. The salt stores energy for seven hours after sunset. Morocco produces electricity in the dark, from the sun.
582MW
installed capacity
1.6TWh/yr
estimated output
773KtCO₂/yr
emissions avoided
7hours
storage after sunset
Sun Tracker: Noor III Tower
Drag the slider to move the sun. Watch heliostats adjust. After sunset, molten salt takes over.
510
MW direct solar
0
MW from storage
510
MW total output
Solar noon
24-Hour Energy Profile
Gold = direct solar. Amber = molten salt storage. The gap from 5–6 AM is when salt is depleted and sun hasn't risen.
The Four Phases
Three CSP technologies + one PV. Click to expand. Capacity bar shows relative size.
Morocco Energy Mix: 2023 → 2030
64% coal today. Target: 52% renewable by 2030. The transition requires 10.5 GW of new solar, wind, and hydro.
2023 (electricity production)
2030 Target (installed capacity)
Renewable Roadmap
From 0.3 GW in 2009 to 10.5 GW target by 2030. A 35× increase in two decades.
Reading Notes
Why Molten Salt Matters
Standard solar PV stops producing the moment the sun sets. Morocco's peak electricity demand is in the evening — after sunset. Molten salt, heated to 565°C by concentrated sunlight, stores that energy as heat and releases it through steam turbines for 7 hours into the night. This is what makes CSP different from PV: it is a dispatchable renewable. It runs on demand, not on sunshine.
Trough vs Tower
Noor I and II use parabolic troughs — curved mirrors that focus sunlight onto a tube of synthetic oil running along their focal line. Noor III uses a tower: 7,400 flat mirrors (heliostats) reflect sunlight to a single receiver atop a 250-metre tower, heating molten salt directly. The tower reaches higher temperatures (565°C vs 393°C), making it more efficient but more complex.
The Coal Problem
In 2023, coal still generated 64% of Morocco's electricity. The country imports over 90% of its energy. The 52% renewable target by 2030 requires adding 10.5 GW of new solar, wind, and hydro — more than doubling current renewable capacity. Noor showed it is possible. The question is speed: 5 years to close a 12-point gap between 40.7% today and 52% target.
In the same desert where they filmed Game of Thrones, Morocco built something more improbable than dragons. A plant that captures the Saharan sun in liquid salt and releases it as electricity after dark. 580 megawatts. Enough for a million homes. And it was just the first project. The compass points south — toward the sun.
Sources
Noor-Ouarzazate specifications: MASEN, ACWA Power project documentation, World Bank (Clean Technology Fund), CIF background brief. Phase capacities: 160 + 200 + 150 + 72 MW (Wikipedia/MASEN). GWh estimates: Noor I 370, Noor II 600, Noor III 500 (King's College London, Power Technology). CO₂ offsets: 690,000 t/yr total (Morocco World News Sep 2025, Borgen Project Aug 2025). Storage: 3h (Noor I), 7h (Noor II, III). Tower height 250m (Sener). Morocco energy mix 2023: ANRE/ONEE via trade.gov. 2030 target: 52% (IEA, MASEN). Installed RE capacity: IEA-PVPS 2024 (11,474 MW total, 40.7% renewable). Solar capacity 1,515 MW and wind 935 MW (2025 est., Enerdata Feb 2025). ANRE 9.3 GW target by 2029 (Enerdata). Heliostat count: 7,400 (CIF). Cost: $9B total program estimate (Reuters/MASEN).
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