Ouarzazate is a beautiful town in south-central Morocco, where ruddy orange earthen Kasbahs stand tall, as they have for centuries, on a high plateau between the snow-topped Atlas mountains which form its backdrop and the Sahara. Nicknamed the ‘door of the desert’, it is also home to the major film sets of Atlas Studios, where films such as Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator were shot, as well as, more recently, part of the television series Game of Thrones.
It now has another claim to fame however, as just six miles away from the town is one of the biggest solar projects in the world, the Ouarzazate Solar Power Station. This enormous array of solar mirrors, first connected to the grid in 2016, is part of a grand plan to end Morocco’s dependency on energy imports and put the country on a ‘green path’ aimed at meeting 52 per cent of the country’s energy needs from renewable sources by 2030.
