World's Largest Solar Power Plant To Supply Enough Energy For 1.1 Million People (computerworld.com)

Lucas123 writes: The world's largest solar power plant is now live and will eventually provide 1.1 million people in Morocco with power and cut carbon emissions by 760,000 tons a year. Phase 1 of the Noor concentrated solar power (CSP) plant went live last week, providing 140 megawatts (MW) of power to Morocco. Phases 2 and 3 will be completed by 2018 when the plant is expected to generate more than 500MW of power. The Noor plant, located in south-central Morocco, will cover 6,178 acres and produce so much energy, that Morocco may eventually start exporting the clean energy to the European market.

Comments

Cool in theory, but numbers may be too optimistic

[evolutionary]

In my experience, many projects look great on paper but when the benchmarks of a what is in essence an experiment, they usually fall short. It's a worthwhile project for sure, but I'd bet more on 700k rather than 1.1 million. Solar Cells are not that efficient yet (we're getting there), and there is power delivery;How much power will we lose in transport over a physical medium with electrical resistance. (even with super conductors there is SOME loss, just less). This would be awesome in deserts where in theory there is minimal impact on the environment, but then again..do we really know the impact on the natural balance of things by putting in a few thousands solar panels for generating electric power. I know we've done smaller scale projects like this in China, for example and probably other places. But I kind of doubt energy proeuced will be enough to export much power to outsiders like Europe if any at all. Still, if it cuts emissions, that's cool. so why aren't we doing that in, say, Arizona or Nevada?