Electricity makes the world go around. Our energy demand is ever-increasing and with the rising numbers of electric vehicles on our roads, finding sustainable ways of getting power from the plug is more important than ever.
A possible solution lies in Morocco. Here, at the Noor Power Station – just outside Ouarzazate – lies the largest solar complex in the world with enough sun-catching power to keep cities such as Marrakesh and Casablanca running. Noor, which is Arabic for ‘light’, is made up of a series of areas, but one of the most striking is Noor 3. Here, hundreds of solar panels – each called a heliostat and the size of a squash court – track the sun and reflect its rays up to the top of a 242-metre-tall tower. At this point, the energy is focused into an area filled with molten salt which is, in turn, used to boil water, producing steam which then drives turbines. Hey presto, energy.
And back down to the ground, we’ve got Skoda’s latest Enyaq hooked up to this solar-produced power. Why? Well, to see whether or not electric vehicles are any good at road-tripping, we’re taking this Czech firm’s core EV on a bit of a road trip.
With a fully topped up battery courtesy of that burning ball in the sky, the Enyaq is detached from its tether and we set off towards our first destination – a desert camp, right on the edge of the Sahara desert. It’s over four hours of driving but, as with all things in Morocco, it’s not a straight shot and takes in some winding, challenging lanes and some serious descents as well.