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Ouarzazate Solar Power Station (OSPS), also called Noor Power Station (نور,
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
for
light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 te ...
) is a solar power complex and auxiliary diesel fuel system located in the
Drâa-Tafilalet Drâa-Tafilalet ( ar, درعة - تافيلالت, darʿa - tāfīlālt; ber, ⴷⵔⴰ ⵜⴰⴼⵉⵍⴰⵍⵜ, drɛa tafilalt) is one of the twelve regions of Morocco. It covers an area of 88,836 km2 and had a population of 1,635,008 as ...
region in
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
, from
Ouarzazate Ouarzazate (; ar, ورزازات, Warzāzāt, ; ary, وارزازات, Wārzāzāt; shi, label=Berber, ⵡⴰⵔⵣⴰⵣⴰⵜ, Warzazat), nicknamed ''the door of the desert'', is a city and capital of Ouarzazate Province in the region of Dr ...
town, in Ghessat rural council area. At 510 MW, it is the world's largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant. With an additional 72 MW photovoltaic system the entire project was planned to produce 582 MW. The total project's estimated cost is around $2.5 billion. The auxiliary diesel fuel system is used to maintain the minimal temperatures of the
heat transfer fluid In fluid thermodynamics, a heat transfer fluid is a gas or liquid that takes part in heat transfer by serving as an intermediary in cooling on one side of a process, transporting and storing thermal energy, and heating on another side of a proc ...
during times when the sun does not shine (including at night), to start the startup and synchronize the turbine to the electrical grid, and other auxiliary functions. The plant is able to store solar energy in the form of heated
molten salt Molten salt is salt which is solid at standard temperature and pressure but enters the liquid phase due to elevated temperature. Regular table salt has a melting point of 801 °C (1474°F) and a heat of fusion of 520 J/g.Journal of Chemical T ...
, allowing for production of electricity into the night. Phase 1 comes with a full-load molten salt storage capacity of 3 hours. Noor II, commissioned in 2018, and Noor III, commissioned in January 2019, store energy for up to eight hours. It will cover an area of .


Development

The project was developed by
ACWA Power ACWA Power is a developer, investor, co-owner and operator of a portfolio of power generation and desalinated water production plants currently with presence in 10 countries including in the Middle East and North Africa, Southern Africa and Sout ...
with the help of the Spanish consortium TSK- Acciona-
Sener SENER is a private engineering and technology group founded in 1956, and specialises in activities related to Engineering and Construction, and has industrial holdings in companies working in the areas of energy, environment and aeronautics. SEN ...
and is the first in a series of planned developments at the Ouarzazate Solar Complex by the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy ( MASEN). The project received preferential financing from several sources including the Clean Technology Fund,
African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies ...
, the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
, and the European Investment Bank; the EIB has loaned over 300 million euros to the project.


Location

The facility lays in Southern Morocco, near the ancient fortified town Ait-Ben-Haddou, near
Ouarzazate Ouarzazate (; ar, ورزازات, Warzāzāt, ; ary, وارزازات, Wārzāzāt; shi, label=Berber, ⵡⴰⵔⵣⴰⵣⴰⵜ, Warzazat), nicknamed ''the door of the desert'', is a city and capital of Ouarzazate Province in the region of Dr ...
.


Noor I

Ouarzazate Solar Power Station (OSPS) – Phase 1, also referred to as Noor I CSP, has an installed capacity of 160 MW. It was connected to the Moroccan power grid on 5 February 2016. It covers and is expected to deliver 370 GWh per year. The plant is a
parabolic trough A parabolic trough is a type of solar thermal collector that is straight in one dimension and curved as a parabola in the other two, lined with a polished metal mirror. The sunlight which enters the mirror parallel to its plane of symmetry is foc ...
type with a molten salt storage for 3 hours of low-light producing capacity. The cost of the project when it began operations was $3.9 billion. It uses half a million mirrors. The design uses wet cooling and the need to regularly clean the reflectors means that the water use is high – 1.7 million m3 per year or 4.6 liters per kWh. Water usage is more than double the water usage of a wet cooled coal power station and 23 times the water use per kWh of a dry cooled coal power station, though life-cycle
greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and ...
of solar thermal plants show that generating comparable energy from coal typically releases around 20 times more carbon dioxide than renewable sources. The electricity was to be sold at $0.19 /kWh. The monthly production of electricity of the power plant Noor I in 2017 in MWh was: * January: 30261.44 * February: 19418.25 * March: 48605.63 * April: 40376.02 * May: 45445.62 * June: 33369.19 * July: 42276.52 * August: 30850 * September: 41205.18 * October: 31973.98 * November: 22689.4 * December: 27628.56


Noor II

Noor II CSP is the second phase of the Ouarzazate Solar Power Station. It is a 200 MW CSP solar plant using parabolic troughs. It has a 7 hours storage capacity. It covers an area of and is expected to supply 600 GWh per year. Construction started in February 2016 and the plant was commissioned in January 2018. It uses a dry cooling system to decrease water use. The project will supply 1 million people with
electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...
; it is estimated to save 750,000 tons in emissions.


Noor III

Noor III CSP is the third part of the Ouarzazate Solar Power Station. Noor 3 is a different design, the mirrors are mounted horizontally on platforms which are supported by ten metre columns. Each platform is a similar to a tennis court. The panels follow the light, reflecting it to a 250 metre tall solar tower. It is a 150 MW gross CSP solar project using a
solar power tower A solar power tower, also known as 'central tower' power plant or ' heliostat' power plant, is a type of solar furnace using a tower to receive focused sunlight. It uses an array of flat, movable mirrors (called heliostats) to focus the sun's r ...
with 7 hours energy storage. It covers an area of and it is expected to supply 500 GW·h per year. It uses a dry cooling system to decrease water use. The CSP tower mirror field was commissioned in March 2018. Noor III is the fifth ever built utility-scale CSP tower, but the second with energy storage, after the 125 MW gross Crescent Dunes. At 150 MW Noor III is now the most powerful CSP tower unit built. In September 2018 the CSP tower unit was first time synchronized to the power grid. In December Noor III completed a 10-day reliability test demonstrating that the project can provide continuous rated power even in the absence of sunlight. The model HE54 heliostat has 54 mirrors with a total reflective surface of . The solar field has 7400 of such mirrors. The tower is high.


Noor IV

Noor IV is a 72 MW photovoltaic power station. The total investment in this project is 750 million MAD or about million USD.


Water use

Water consumption for the Ouarzazate Noor complex is estimated at 2.5 to 3 million m3 per year for one wet-cooling project (Noor I) and two dry-cooling projects (Noor II and III). The water is sourced from the Mansour Eddahbi dam via pipeline. Water is needed for cooling, as well as to clean the reflectors regularly with high-pressure water hoses and brushes from trucks.


Fossil fuel use

Fuel needs for the Ouarzazate complex have been estimated at 19  t/day of gasoil for a capacity of 500 MW.Morocco - Ouarzazate Solar Power Station Project II - ESIA Summary
Summary environmental and social impact assessment
African Development Bank Group, url=https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Environmental-and-Social-Assessments/Morocco_-_Ouarzazate_Solar_Power_Station_Project_II_-_ESIA_Summary.pdf


See also

*
List of solar thermal power stations This is a list of the largest facilities generating electricity through the use of solar thermal power, specifically concentrated solar power. Operational Under construction Announced Cancelled Decommissioned * Eurelios p ...
*
Solar thermal energy Solar thermal energy (STE) is a form of energy and a technology for harnessing solar energy to generate thermal energy for use in industry, and in the residential and commercial sectors. Solar thermal collectors are classified by the United St ...


References

{{Reflist, 30em Solar power stations in Morocco Energy infrastructure completed in 2016 2016 establishments in Morocco Solar thermal energy