Morocco's king Mohammed VI switch on the first phase of a concentrated solar power plant Noor 1 that will become the world’s largest when completed. Noor 1, the first section at the town of Ouarzazate, provides 160 megawatts (MW) of the ultimate 580MW capacity, helping Morocco to save hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions per year. The next two phases of the Noor project total 350 MW, and are scheduled to come online by 2018. By the time it's finished, the power station on the edge of the Saharan desert will be the size of the country’s capital city and provide electricity for 1.1 million people. http://www.theguardian.com/environm...-on-first-phase-of-worlds-largest-solar-plant http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/det...hase-of-noor-complex_100023072/#axzz3zHa3JdlO Just a fact for those who don't know, concentrated solar power (CSP) plant isn't a normal solar plant. It's way more efficient, around 30%, but still a very expensive technology at current market. It's a step in a right direction IMHO.
The thread title is misleading as Noor 1 (even if Noor 2 is added in a few years, which is quite improbable as PV is now much cheaper / watt) is NOT the world's largest solar power plant. Here is a photo of the one which was in 2014: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Caption was: "Topaz Solar Farm (550 MW) was the world's largest solar farm in 2014 until superseded by the 579-megawatt Solar Star project in 2015" Photo from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Topaz_Solar_Farm,_California_Valley.jpg?download
PV solar is getting cheaper, but it's still a bit more expensive than equivalent (modern, best tech) thermal (http://www.greentechmedia.com/images/wysiwyg/research-blogs/GTM-LCOE-Analysis.pdf ) - as well as being less efficient, which has a large bearing on land area, a factor due to increase in importance as solar power increases in importance. The big advantage of PV is distribution - one can scatter the panels all over, rooftops, everywhere, fairly easily.
