Democracy Dies in Darkness

Europe needs energy. Moroccan solar may be a clean solution.

April 13, 2023 at 6:30 a.m. EDT
An aerial view of the solar mirrors at the Noor 1 concentrated solar power plant outside Ouarzazate in central Morocco in 2016. (Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images)
6 min

The abundant sun of northern Africa may soon power Europe’s homes and businesses, as European leaders consider connecting massive North African solar projects to undersea power cables to free their continent from Russian energy.

The projects would take advantage of the climate quirk that one side of the Mediterranean is far drearier and cloudier than the other, although Europe and North Africa are geographically close. Abundant desert land also makes North African megaprojects far easier than in Europe, where open spaces tend to be agricultural or mountainous.