Climate Change Impacts Captured by Satellite

Monitoring the construction of Noor Ouarzazate with Pléiades shows the scale of what will be the world’s largest concentrated solar power complex.

In 2016, a few months before the COP 22 Climate Conference in Marrakesh, the King of Morocco inaugurated the 480ha Noor 1 concentrated solar power plant north of Ouarzazate. With 160 MW, the plant is the 7th largest in the World. With the NOOR 2, 3 and 4 extensions currently under construction, the plant will be the world’s largest with 500 MW. The plant has a storage capacity of 3 hours of production using molten salt.

Two Pléiades images clearly indicate the scale of the construction work. The first, taken on 17th October 2013, shows the beginning of the groundworks on the vast rocky terrain. On the second, acquired on 8th March 2016, Noor 1 is visible in the south, whilst construction work to extend the plant to the north can also be seen. Once completed, the plant will be as large as Rabat, the capital of Morocco.