Pop Culture cornerstones like Lawrence of Arabia, Game of Thrones, and The Mummy, have called Moroccan City Ouarzazate home. It is this very city that will also become the home of the largest solar complex in the world, which is expected to power one million homes—and maybe some of Europe—with solar energy once it’s complete.
The solar complex is a $9 billion costing project made up of four plants also powered by water and wind, that will provide almost half of Morocco’s electricity by 2020. The world’s largest concentrated solar power plant comes almost 30 years after German particle physicist Gerhard Knies estimated that the entire world could be powered for a year just from the energy the world’s deserts get in a few hours.
The first phase of the solar complex will start working next month. Called Noor 1, the first plant has 500,000 crescent-shaped solar parabolic mirrors—standing at 12 meters tall—divided into 800 rows. The mirrors are a more expensive alternative to the commonly used photovoltaic panels, however the mirror technology allows energy to be produced even when there’s no sun.
The mirrors are connected to a steel pipeline where a “heat transfer solution” made up of a synthetic thermal oil is warmed to 739 degrees Farenheit and makes its way to a heat engine where it mixes with water creating steam to power energy-generating turbines.
According to technicians, Noor 2 and 3, are expected to open in 2017. Estimates predict these plants will store energy for up to eight hours, allowing for 24/7 solar energy in the Sahara and its neighboring cities.
[via The Guardian]
