Morocco’s Giant Solar Plant to Bring Energy to 1 Million People
Morocco’s enormous concentrated solar power plant—which will be the world’s largest once fully built—will complete phase one next month and bring energy to 1 million people, BBC News reports. Located outside the city of Ourrzazate, the plant will take up the same amount of space as Morocco’s capital, Rabat, and will generate 580 megawatts of electricity. The plant employs a large number of movable mirrors that can follow the sun’s path and harness sunlight to melt salt. The molten salt stores energy and can be used to power a steam turbine, allowing for energy production even at night. “You have 35 soccer fields of huge parabolic mirrors pointed to the sky which are moveable so they will track the Sun throughout the day,” Paddy Padmanathan of Saudi-owned ACWA Power, which is running the p…