WE humans are a selfish lot, and often take the easy way out. This is particularly the case with generating electricity, so sun drenched Saudi Arabia uses oil, while Australia is dependent on coal. Meanwhile the UK pointedly ignores its abundant wind and tidal energy potential in favour of coal and gas, supported by the largest fossil fuel subsidies in Europe.

The good news is that one country, Morocco, has decided to buck this trend and make full use of its sun and the nearby Sahara desert. I was in Rabat, the capital, for a week last summer, visiting relatives, and even there, on the coast, it was sunny all day – inland the sunshine was truly impressive, and now it won't be going to waste.

For comparison sake Marrakesh has sunshine for about three quarters of the daylight hours whereas Manchester is below one fifth, and there's likely to be even more further inland.

It's very encouraging to see that they intend to make the best use of it particularly as the sun is also higher in the sky so more intense, and winter daylight is longer.

They propose to build five solar power stations by 2020, producing around thirty percent of the electricity needs of the country, enough for a million homes, and then develop more later so electricity can be exported by undersea cable to Spain and the rest of the EU.

The first one has just been switched on and will use the different technique of concentrated solar power, not the normal photo voltaic cells that we see on an increasing number of our roofs that use ultra-violet light from the sun to generate the electricity.

CSP, however, involves large lines of curved mirrors, some twelve metres high, and they move throughout the day, tracking the sun and concentrating its rays, in the same way a magnifying glass can be used to focus the sun on a piece of paper until it burns.

This technique captures the energy from the sun and focuses it on steel pipes that carry a synthetic oil to transfer the heat which reaches up to 400 degrees Celsius as it coils through a steam producing system that is used to generate electricity.

It finally passes through large containers of molten salt that store the heat for at least three hours, and in some circumstances, for eight. This can be used to generate electricity throughout the night so that it's possible to have a continuous 24 hour supply that can't be achieved with normal solar panels.

Also as well as reducing CO2 emissions the power will be used for desalination to supply fresh water in the drier coastal areas.