Exploring Five Landmark Renewable Energy Projects Worldwide

Noor Ouarzazate Solar Power Station

Sahara Desert, Morocco

Capacity: 580 MW

Covering 7,400 acres in Morocco’s Sahara Desert, the Noor Solar Power Station, located near Ouarzazate, stands as one of the largest and most forward-thinking solar power facilities globally.

The Noor facility employs advanced concentrated solar power (CSP) technology to generate electricity. CSP systems use mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight onto a central receiver, producing heat to generate steam that drives a turbine. This differs from conventional photovoltaic panels, which convert sunlight directly into electricity. CSP’s ability to store thermal energy in materials like molten salt allows for electricity generation even after sunset, offering advantages in grid stability and load management.

“Morocco, like many emerging economies, is considered high-risk by credit-rating agencies and private institutional investors, making it challenging for even strong, viable development projects to secure private-sector funding,” says Lisa Sachs, director of Columbia’s new MS in Climate Finance program. The Noor complex overcame these barriers by getting financed through a combination of debt and equity provided by international financial institutions, including the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank, adds Sachs. “This highlights the critical role that development finance plays in enabling clean energy investments in low- and lower-middle-income countries.”

For sustainable growth in renewable energy across Africa and other regions, reliance solely on development finance is not feasible, Sachs argues. “We also need to address the structural biases and systemic barriers that prevent private investment from flowing into these markets. Ensuring that emerging economies can access capital on terms comparable to developed countries is essential to achieving global climate and energy targets and fostering equitable and sustainable economic development.”

The Noor facility provides power for over 1.1 million Moroccans and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 690,000 tons of CO₂ equivalent annually. It serves as a benchmark for sustainable development in Africa and beyond.

Video: Inside the world’s biggest ‘mirror’ solar plant (BBC)

Three Gorges Dam

Sandouping, Yiling District, Hubei, China

Capacity: 22.5 GW

Stretching across the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Dam in China is the largest power plant globally by installed capacity. It demonstrates both the potential of renewable energy on a grand scale and the complexities tied to significant environmental engineering projects. With a length of approximately 2.3 kilometers and a height of 180 meters, the dam forms an enormous reservoir, significantly transforming the Yangtze’s landscape. Its 32 turbines generate enough power to supply millions of homes, decreasing China’s coal dependency and substantially lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to energy production, the Three Gorges Dam aids in flood control, improves ship navigation, and provides freshwater resources during dry periods. However, it has sparked debates regarding the environmental and societal impacts of such large-scale infrastructure projects. The dam’s construction displaced around 1.3 million people, submerged cultural sites and natural habitats, and has led to erosion and an increased risk of landslides. Researchers have even associated the reservoir’s immense weight and water infiltration into geological faults with a significant rise in earthquakes in the area.

“Few, if any, future infrastructure projects are likely to match the scale of disruption caused by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam,” says Sagatom Saha, an adjunct research scholar at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “Still, large-scale renewable projects—whether solar parks, wind farms or transmission corridors—raise their own concerns.”

The essential, longstanding environmental protections we have in the U.S., such as the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, have made it harder to rapidly build infrastructure needed to decarbonize, says Saha.

As policy makers from different sides of the political spectrum look for ways to simplify the permitting process while still protecting ecosystems and communities, “consensus remains elusive,” he says. “As we work to build the clean energy economy and meet the growing demands of data centers and AI, we should not forget the hard-won lessons from past energy infrastructure projects.”

Despite its controversies, the Three Gorges Dam remains an extraordinary feat of engineering, technological complexity, and scale.

Video: Building the world’s largest (and most controversial) power plant (TED-Ed)

Alta Wind Energy Center

Mojave Desert, California

Capacity: 1.55 GW

Situated in the Tehachapi Mountains near the Mojave Desert, the Alta Wind Energy Center is among the world’s largest onshore wind farms. Its 600 turbines capture the winds sweeping over the Tehachapi Range, generating clean electricity for up to 450,000 homes and preventing the emission of approximately 5.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, which equates to removing around 446,000 gasoline vehicles from the roads.

The successful integration of Alta Wind into the power grid marks a significant milestone. The 173-mile (278 km) Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project (TRTP), completed in 2016, facilitates the delivery of renewable energy generated at Alta Wind to densely populated areas in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties. This transmission system boasts a capacity of up to 4.5 gigawatts, sufficient to supply power to an estimated 3 million homes.

“Last year the United States generated more electricity from wind and solar combined than from coal, finally reaching this important milestone after a decade of sustained progress,” says Matthew Eisenson, senior fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. “Yet despite this progress, getting new wind and solar projects approved remains a significant challenge.

Local zoning is one of the primary hurdles, he explains. “The Sabin Center has documented restrictions in hundreds of towns and counties, including mandatory setbacks of up to two miles, which effectively block development,” says Eisenson.

In response, New York, California, Illinois, Michigan and other states have enacted comprehensive permitting reforms that limit the impact of local barriers on utility-scale renewable energy projects. On January 20, 2025, the president announced a federal pause on new and renewed approvals for onshore and offshore wind projects, introducing another “major obstacle to scaling up the nation’s renewable energy infrastructure, particularly wind power,” he adds.

In addition to creating thousands of construction and maintenance jobs and boosting local economies, the Alta Wind Energy Center is helping California achieve its ambitious goal of using 100% clean electricity by 2045.

Video: Largest Wind Farms in the U.S.

Yamakura Dam Floating Solar Plant

Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Capacity: 13.7 MW

The Yamakura Dam Solar Plant in Japan represents one of the latest and rapidly expanding sectors of renewable energy: floating solar. Positioned on the surface of the Yamakura Dam reservoir, the installation spans 18 hectares (45 acres) and features over 50,000 PV solar panels, supplying electricity to around 5,000 households.

Floating solar systems benefit from the cooling effects of water, which can enhance panel efficiency and lifespan compared to traditional land-based setups. Additionally, the coverage provided by floating installations helps minimize water evaporation. Floating solar addresses the critical issue of land scarcity, especially in densely populated areas like Japan. By utilizing reservoir surfaces, the Yamakura Dam Solar Plant generates energy for nearby communities without affecting agriculture, housing, or existing infrastructure.

“The growth of floating solar also illustrates another, broader phenomenon,” says Columbia Business School climate economist Gernot Wagner. “Solar panels are so cheap these days they’re being installed as everything from garden fences to carports. The solar fence may not be as cheap as wood quite yet, but it keeps the dog in and the car charged. Similarly, the floating panel may not be as cheap as a simple tarp, but it decreases evaporation and generates electricity to boot.”

The World Bank estimates that approximately 6,600 water bodies worldwide—including former coal mines, stone quarries, and hydropower lagoons—could be suitable for floating solar installations. If just 10% of the surface area of these sites were utilized for solar generation, they could collectively produce up to a staggering 400 GW of renewable electricity.

Video: Kyocera TCL Solar LLC Floating PV Plant: Yamakura Dam

Hellisheiði Power Station

Hengill, Iceland

Capacity: 303 MW; additional heating

Iceland’s Hellisheiði Power Station, near Reykjavík, is among the world’s most advanced geothermal energy plants. Leveraging Iceland’s volcanic landscape, the facility extracts high-pressure steam and hot water from deep underground to supply both electricity and heat to thousands of local homes and businesses.

Beyond energy production, the Hellisheiði Power Station integrates innovative carbon capture and storage techniques through the CarbFix project. At Hellisheiði, carbon dioxide from geothermal emissions is dissolved in water and injected into underground basalt rocks, where it transforms into solid carbonate minerals, permanently sequestering the CO₂. Additionally, CarbFix’s Orca plant captures CO₂ directly from the air, offering a pioneering approach to potentially reducing global atmospheric carbon emissions.

“Alongside rapidly reducing emissions, large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) is fundamental to climate scenarios that limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” says Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory geologist Joshua Murray. “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that about 10-20 gigatons of CO₂ will need to be captured and stored annually by 2100.

Converting CO₂ to carbonate minerals is an appealing method for CCS, says Murray, because those minerals are stable and form naturally over geologic timescales, limiting the risk of future CO₂ leaks or pollution.

At Hellisheiði, Murray notes, “Carbfix has proven that CO₂ injection into basaltic rock is a successful mineralization strategy on the scale of a single power plant, capturing around 12,000 tons annually.”

Employed at a large scale, “the global distribution of basaltic (and similar) rocks could sequester 60,000,000 gigatons of CO₂—so rocks are not the limiting factor.” The biggest challenge will be scaling up CCS, Murray adds, “which will require continued scientific research, political commitment and the integration of multiple technologies—including carbon mineralization approaches like those used by Carbfix. Each of these technologies can benefit, as Carbfix has done, from looking at natural geological and biological processes as inspiration for CCS.”

Iceland generates nearly 100% of its electricity and heating from renewable sources, and its Hellisheiði Power Station exemplifies how innovative renewable energy technologies can harmoniously integrate with local ecosystems while benefiting nearby communities.

Video: Inside the hidden carbon plant pulling CO₂ from thin air (BBC News)