my innovation journey starts inland, south of morocco s major cities and mighty atlas mountains, just north of the sahara desert, near the quiet outpost of ouarzazate. this part of saharan morocco is known as the door of the desert. the landscape out here, it s almost like it s from another world. feels like we could be on mars. these plains receive three times the sun as parts of northern europe. ..and are home to a world leading project of staggering scale. this is noor, a solar power station, putting morocco at the forefront of pioneering renewable technology. i m used to feeling small, but this makes me feel even smaller. hello, abed, salam. hello, my friend, salam. nice to meet you. nice to meet you, too. this is incredible! and lots of sun. lots of sun, yeah. which is what we want for something like this. yeah. this is not an ordinary solarfield. panels with over 7,000 mirrors follow the sun. and i can hear lots of sounds at the moment. it s quite eerie. is that the pan
You re able to store all of that electricity, to be used at night when there s no sun. yes. this sprawling arena is the latest of several solar plants built here since 2016. similar plants do exist in other countries, but with an output of 582 megawatts, this is the largest in the world. so, we scaled noor s viewing platform to take it all in. look at this! these panels go on as far as i can see. it s 2.5km. it s like a sea of solar. while morocco has always relied heavily on fossil fuel imports, noor s green energy has been transformative. not only it helps to produce renewable energy, but it s also succeeded in supplying nearly 2 millions of moroccans with green electricity,