World’s largest concentrated solar power plant in Morocco showcases AfDB’s New Deal on Energy for Africa
On Thursday, February 4, 2016, King Mohammed VI of Morocco inaugurated the first phase of the country’s Noor Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant, ushering in a new era for Africa’s sustainable energy future.
The Noor Ouarzazate plant (NOORo), supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) among other donors, is a keystone of Morocco’s solar Program (named Program Noor) to develop 2 GW by 2020 and create transformational impact on Morocco and the region. As such, it stands as a showcase example of the ambitious New Deal on Energy initiated by the Bank’s new President, Akinwumi Adesina, to provide universal access to energy for all Africans by 2025. The New Deal is poised to transform Africa’s energy by exponentially increasing on-grid generation and transmission, off-grid connections, and access to clean cooking energy throughout Africa.
Noor Ouarzazate provides an important early example of the type of project, which can trigger the transformation of Africa’s energy sector required to achieve the New Deal’s ambitious vision. The New Deal will operate through five principles: raising aspirations to solve Africa’s energy challenges; establishing a Transformative Partnership on Energy for Africa; mobilizing domestic and international capital for innovative financing in Africa’s energy sector; supporting African governments in strengthening energy policy, regulation and sector governance; and increasing the Bank’s investments in energy and climate financing. Noor addresses those principles in four ways:
- The plant exponentially harnesses the country’s solar power, achieving over 500 megawatts (MW) installed capacity and increasing on-grid access to more than a million households by 2018;
- The plant in Ouarzazate will also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the region by 19 million tons over 25 years, keeping the region in line with its nations’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change;
- Built on a partnership between the public and private sectors, the project will exponentially increase market access to solar energy by reducing market risk and creating attractive investment potential;