Morocco NOOR Large-Scale Solar and Storage Power Plant

In 2024, on the edge of the Sahara Desert in Morocco, the construction of NOOR Ouarzazate Solar Complex is facing dual challenges of extreme environments and strict standards. As the largest "PV + CSP + Energy Storage" integrated energy cluster in North Africa, this core project bearing Morocco's energy self-sufficiency strategy is in urgent need of a complete set of cable solutions that are suitable for high-temperature and strong-ultraviolet environments, meet European standards, and can be quickly implemented. Our team successfully undertook the cable supply task for this project by virtue of complete international certifications, professional customization capabilities and efficient delivery services, solved project problems with strength, and helped the power plant connect to the grid ahead of schedule.

Five Core Pain Points of Morocco's NOOR PV Project

NOOR Ouarzazate Solar Complex has a total planned installed capacity of 580 MW and an annual sunshine duration of up to 330 days. Behind the unique PV conditions are multiple challenges that trouble the project party. As the core cable supplier of the project, our team conducted in-depth on-site investigations and found that the customer's core demands are concentrated in five aspects, which are also the key bottlenecks restricting the project progress.

The primary pain point is the rigid requirement of continuous power supply. As a benchmark project for Morocco's new energy transformation, the power plant needs to achieve 24/7 stable power transmission, especially in conjunction with the energy storage system to ensure continuous power supply after sunset. Any power outage caused by cable failure may affect the overall project progress and energy supply plan. Secondly, the high-current and high-temperature operating conditions of the energy storage system have greatly increased the difficulty of cable selection. The customer lacks professional selection guidance and is worried that wrong selection will cause potential safety hazards and unnecessary cost waste.

More severely, there is the environmental test. Located on the edge of the Sahara Desert, the extreme environment of high temperature, strong ultraviolet radiation and large temperature difference between day and night makes ordinary cables prone to aging and failure such as sheath cracking and insulation degradation. The customer clearly requires the cable service life to be at least 25 years to meet the long-term operation needs of the power plant. In addition, under the background of construction led by European EPC companies, a strict grid connection schedule has been formulated, with a tight construction period. The customer urgently needs to quickly obtain conventional specifications of cables to shorten the construction cycle; at the same time, the overall investment scale of the project is huge, and the customer needs to strictly control the investment cost and maximize cost performance on the premise of ensuring cable quality and system reliability.

More importantly, due to the participation of European capital in the project, the cable standards must strictly align with the European standard system and be compatible with international certification requirements, which has also become a core threshold for customers to select suppliers. After comparing local and other suppliers, the customer finally chose our team, mainly because our products have complete certifications, rich case experience, solutions that meet the needs, and can provide fast delivery services, which can truly solve practical problems for customers.

Our Core Strengths

Faced with the multiple pain points of the project, our team did not simply provide cable products, but created an integrated "product + solution + service" solution combined with the actual project scenario. Among them, PV cables, as the core products, have become the key to solving environmental and compliance problems by virtue of their outstanding performance and complete certifications.

Core PV Cables: Supported by TUV Certification, Suitable for Extreme Environments

In this project, we mainly supplied H1Z2Z2-K or equivalent XLPO double insulated PV cables, focusing on DC side transmission. From product performance to installation adaptation, they fully meet the strict requirements of desert PV power plants, which is also one of the core reasons why customers chose us.

In terms of certification, our PV cables have passed TUV EN 50618 certification with certificate number B 126326 0001 Rev.00, which fully meets the requirements of the European standard system. No additional certification is required, and it can directly connect with the compliance requirements of European EPC companies, saving a lot of time costs for the project; other supporting cables have also passed national standard TÜV and IEC 62930 (basic) certifications, and all products have undergone strict type tests, with absolute quality assurance.

In terms of technical data, this XLPO double insulated PV cable has a rated voltage of 1500V DC, and the operating temperature range covers -40℃ to 90℃, with the maximum conductor temperature reaching 120℃, perfectly adapting to the high temperature and large day-night temperature difference environment on the edge of the Sahara; the common specifications are 4mm², 6mm², 10mm², among which 10mm² is mainly used for large array busbar, with high transmission efficiency and effective reduction of line loss; tested, after being placed in an environment of 85℃ and 85% RH for 1000 hours, the insulation resistance still remains > 1000MΩ·km, eliminating the risk of leakage, and the service life can reach more than 25 years, far exceeding the design life of 8-10 years of ordinary PV cables.

In terms of structure and color, the conductor adopts the 5th type tinned copper flexible conductor in EN 50618, which has good conductivity, oxidation resistance and is not easy to corrode; both insulation and sheath are made of 125℃ irradiated cross-linked XLPO material, which is compounded with special anti-aging masterbatch to form a three-dimensional network structure, greatly improving weather resistance and mechanical strength; the double insulation design further reduces the risk of short circuit; the color adopts the PV industry standard red (positive electrode) and black (negative electrode), which is convenient for distinguishing during construction and improves installation efficiency.

In terms of installation scenarios, this cable is mainly used for the connection between PV modules and the DC transmission between modules and combiner boxes. The 4mm² and 6mm² specifications are suitable for small component arrays, and the 10mm² specification is used for large array busbar. It can be directly exposed to extreme outdoor environments without additional protection, and can also be adapted to underground laying needs, with extremely strong compatibility.

Full-Series Supporting Cables

In addition to the core PV cables, our team also provides a full series of supporting cables to achieve one-stop supply, avoiding the tedious process of customers docking with multiple suppliers, and ensuring the compatibility of cables in all links to improve the overall stability of the system.

1. High-Voltage DC Busbar Cables: 1500V DC Armored and Unarmored Cables, common specifications are 16mm², 25mm², 35mm², used for DC busbar transmission from inverters to step-up stations. The armored type is used for underground laying, with anti-extrusion and anti-mechanical damage capabilities; the unarmored type is used for outdoor laying, with large transmission capacity, suitable for 1500V high-voltage environment, eliminating the risk of high-voltage breakdown, and better insulation performance than ordinary DC cables.

2. AC Side Cables: YJV XLPE Insulated Power Cables, common specifications are 3×95mm², 3×185mm², 3×240mm², used for AC transmission from step-up stations to the power grid. XLPE insulation material has strong heat resistance and corrosion resistance, no harmful plasticizers, environmental protection and longer service life, suitable for the high-load AC transmission needs of power plants.

3. Control and Communication Cables: RVV / RVVP Shielded Control Cables, common specifications are 2×1.5mm², 4×1.5mm², 6×1.5mm². The RVVP type is equipped with a tinned copper wire shielding layer, which can effectively block electromagnetic interference, ensure the stable transmission of control signals and communication signals, avoid equipment failures caused by signal interference, and has much better anti-interference ability than ordinary control cables.

4. Grounding System: Bare Copper or Tinned Copper Grounding Cables, common specifications are 16mm², 25mm², 35mm². The tinned copper material is anti-oxidation and corrosion-resistant, which can effectively improve grounding performance, ensure the safety of power plant equipment and personnel, adapt to the corrosive environment of desert areas, and have longer service life and better stability than ordinary grounding cables.

More Than Products, But Also Professionalism and Efficiency

Compared with other suppliers, the core advantage of our team lies in "full-chain service", from product supply to scheme design, from selection guidance to delivery and installation, escorting customers throughout the process:

First, complete certifications and worry-free compliance. The PV cables have exclusive TUV EN 50618 certification (certificate number B 126326 0001 Rev.00), and other products are equipped with TÜV and IEC 62930 certifications, fully aligning with the European standard system, saving customers the trouble of additional certifications; second, outstanding weather resistance. The special treatment of XLPO insulation material allows the cables to operate stably in extreme environments for more than 25 years, reducing long-term maintenance costs; third, one-stop supply, full-series cable matching, ensuring system compatibility; fourth, professional selection. For the complex operating conditions of the energy storage system, we provide LSZH tinned copper flexible battery cables and complete selection support to reduce selection risks; fifth, fast delivery. We have stock of conventional specifications, and the prefabricated cable scheme can be delivered quickly, with a delivery time 30% shorter than other suppliers.

Tailor-Made: Five Pain Points, Five Solutions

Based on the core pain points of the project, our team did not copy the general scheme, but in-depth connected with customer needs, combined with product advantages, and tailor-made a set of PV energy storage and medium-voltage cable integrated solutions, followed up the project progress throughout the process, and solved the problems one by one.

To address the pain point of "continuous power supply", we abandoned the single cable supply mode, accurately matched XLPO double insulated PV cables, high-voltage DC busbar cables with energy storage system cables, optimized the cable layout to reduce line loss, and at the same time equipped LSZH tinned copper flexible battery cables to adapt to the high-current and high-temperature operating conditions of the energy storage system, ensuring 24/7 stable power transmission of the power plant, even relying on the energy storage system after sunset, which can continuously meet the power supply demand.

To solve the problem of "high selection difficulty and high risk", our team set up a professional technical team to in-depth understand the parameters and operating conditions of the energy storage system, combined with past experience in similar projects, provided customers with complete selection support, recommended suitable cable specifications and models, issued detailed selection scheme instructions, clarified the selection basis and advantages, completely solved customers' selection concerns, and avoided potential safety hazards and cost waste caused by wrong selection.

To solve the problem of "harsh environment and easy cable aging", we mainly adopted H1Z2Z2-K or equivalent XLPO double insulated PV cables. The specially treated XLPO insulation material has outstanding UV resistance, high temperature resistance and hydrolysis resistance, which can effectively resist the extreme environment of the Sahara, avoid problems such as cable sheath cracking and insulation degradation. At the same time, we carried out special protection treatment on all outdoor laid cables to further improve weather resistance and ensure that the cable service life reaches more than 25 years.

To meet the requirement of "tight construction period", we sorted out the conventional specifications of cables needed for the project in advance and made sufficient stock reserves. Among them, the conventional specifications such as 4mm², 6mm², 10mm² XLPO double insulated PV cables and 16mm², 25mm² high-voltage DC busbar cables can be shipped within 72 hours; at the same time, we provided prefabricated cable schemes, completed cable cutting and joint processing in advance, and customers can directly install them after receiving the goods, which greatly shortened the on-site construction time and laid the foundation for the project to connect to the grid ahead of schedule.

To meet the demand of "high cost pressure", we maximized the reduction of overall costs on the premise of ensuring reliability through standardized cable selection and system optimization design: on the one hand, recommended suitable specifications to avoid waste caused by over-selection, for example, 10mm² is preferred for large array busbar, balancing transmission efficiency and cost; on the other hand, optimized the cable layout to reduce cable usage, and relied on our supply chain advantages to reduce product prices, helping customers maximize cost performance.

Witness the Successful Implementation of the Project

Our team has always believed that high-quality products need perfect service support. During the project cooperation, we followed up the whole process from quality control to delivery execution to ensure the efficient implementation of the project.

In terms of quality, we have established a full-process quality control system, strictly controlling every link from raw material procurement to production and delivery. High-quality tinned copper and XLPO insulation materials are selected as raw materials to prevent unqualified raw materials from entering the warehouse; during the production process, we strictly follow international standards and certification requirements, and conduct real-time detection of cable conductor resistance, insulation thickness, voltage resistance performance, etc.; before delivery, all cables have undergone voltage resistance test, insulation resistance test, aging test, etc., to ensure that the products meet the project requirements. At the same time, we have experience in undertaking similar projects, are familiar with the cable application scenarios of centralized PV power plants, and can predict potential risks in advance and provide customers with full-process safety technical guidance.

In terms of delivery execution, we established an exclusive docking team to follow up the project progress throughout the process and respond to customer needs quickly. After receiving the order, we give priority to allocating stock, and the prefabricated cable scheme can be produced and delivered within 5 working days; we arrange a professional logistics team to be responsible for the transportation and customs clearance of cables to ensure that the cables are safely and timely delivered to the project site; at the same time, we send technical personnel to the project site to provide installation guidance services, answer questions encountered by customers during installation, and assist customers in quickly completing cable installation and commissioning.

Grid Connection Ahead of Schedule, Achieving Win-Win

After 3 months of efficient promotion, our team successfully completed the supply, delivery and installation guidance of all cables, helping Morocco's NOOR Ouarzazate Solar Complex connect to the grid 15 days ahead of schedule, and successfully met all customer needs.

After the project was connected to the grid, the cables we supplied operated stably without any failures. Especially the XLPO double insulated PV cables performed excellently in high-temperature and strong-ultraviolet environments with stable transmission efficiency. The energy storage system was well adapted to the cables, ensuring 24/7 continuous power supply of the power plant, providing strong support for Morocco to increase the proportion of new energy installed capacity and promote the energy self-sufficiency strategy.

The customer highly recognized this cooperation, believing that our team's products are reliable in quality, solutions meet the needs, delivery is timely, and technical services are professional. It not only effectively solved various problems faced by the project, but also the weather resistance and stability of the cables exceeded expectations, providing strong guarantee for the long-term stable operation of the project. The customer clearly stated that they will continue to cooperate with our team in the future and regard us as their core partner in the field of PV cables.

We Invite You to Embark on the Future of PV New Energy Together

The successful delivery of Morocco's NOOR PV power plant project fully proves the strength and advantages of our team in the field of PV cable export - complete certifications, reliable quality, professional solutions and fast delivery, which can accurately adapt to the needs of centralized PV power plants in various harsh environments.

Whether you are engaged in centralized or distributed PV projects in Morocco or other countries, whether you are facing any pain points such as harsh environment, tight construction period, difficult selection, high cost pressure, our team can provide you with a tailor-made integrated PV cable solution, with high-quality products, professional services and reasonable prices, to help your project implement efficiently and operate stably for a long time.

We have TUV EN 50618 certification (PV cable certificate number B 126326 0001 Rev.00) and many other international certifications such as TÜV and IEC 62930, with experience in undertaking similar projects, stock of conventional specifications of cables, fast delivery, and full-process professional technical support and after-sales service.

Welcome to consult and place orders at any time, and work with our team to win the future of PV new energy together!

Dongguan GERITEL Electrical Co., Ltd.

Tel/WhatsApp/WeChat: +86 135 1078 4550 / +86 136 6257 9592

Email: manager01@greaterwire.com