To go hand in hand with the development of the country and face the rapidly increasing energy demand, Morocco began developing a green plan in order to produce 2000 MW of renewable energy on the horizon of 2020. Solar conversion is believed to play a pivotal role in the Moroccan energy transition. The principle objective of this work is to comprehensively overview the Moroccan parabolic trough solar thermal power plant Noor 1 as one of the leading solar plants in Africa and Middle-East. The main motivations behind the site selection as well as a detailed technical description of the plant are provided. For the first time, existing similar parabolic trough solar thermal power plants worldwide are reviewed and compared. It was concluded that the specific energy generation of Noor 1 is well ranked among the compared plants (superior to 61.5% of other plants). (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.