Morocco has chosen concentrating solar power over photovoltaics as the technology for its first solar power station. The North African nation's government, which had previously said it was open to all types of solar technology, said the decision was an important step towards implementing its renewable energy programme, which involves boosting the country's installed wind capacity to 2,000 megawatts by 2016 and adding 2,000mw of solar capacity by 2020. The first stage of the planned US$9 billion (Dh33.03bn) investment in solar development will entail building a 125mw plant near , a town located on a plateau in the Atlas Mountains in southern central Morocco. It is to be part of a larger slated for completion by the end of 2015. "The fact that we are able to pick the technology type for this unit means that we are making strides towards completing the Ourzazate complex in time," Mustapha Bakoury, the CEO of the y (MASEN), told Reuters. The choice of solar thermal technology reflected the needs of the national power utility, , for a project incorporating electricity storage, he said.. Solar thermal technology, also known as concentrating solar power (CSP), uses arrays of parabolic mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a boiler to produce steam, which drives a turbine to generate electricity. Modern designs for industrial CSP plants usually also incorporate energy storage features, enabling electricity to be produced as required, rather than only when the sun shines. Often, . The other main technology for solar power is photovoltaics, which uses semi conductors to convert sunlight directly into electricity. Morocco has invited investors that had previously expressed an interest in participating in the first phase of the solar scheme to make pre-qualification submissions to MASEN on Monday. Final bids would be invited by the end of next month, Mr Bakoury said.