ALGERIAN SUN TO GERMANY BY WIRE

Interesting footnote to this project’s announcement: NEAL, the Algerian partner, implied it will not proceed without greater access to European power markets via European grids. How will this impact EU plans to “decouple” the European energy giants?

Algeria plans solar power cable to Germany – paper
William Maclean, November 14, 2007 (from the Algerian state-owned newspaper El Watan, reported via Reuters)

WHO
Tewfik Hasni, chief executive, New Energy Algeria (NEAL)

click to enlarge

WHAT
"Clean Power From The Desert" is an Algerian project to export solar-generated electricity from the Sahara.

WHEN
- Announcement November 14 in conjunction with visit to Algeria by German President Horst Koehler
- Pending approval from Algerian and German governments
- NEAL and Spain's Abener Energia Spa start construction in 2008 on a 250 million euro hybrid solar-gas plant due to come on line in late 2009.

WHERE
- The cable will run from the Algerian town of Adrar to the German city of Aachen, across the Mediterranean to the island of Sardinia, then mainland Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
- The new hybrid solar-gas plant is at Hassi R'Mel in central M'Zab province.

WHY
- The plan is to build a 3,000 km (1,875 mile) cable.
- It will be financed by a consortium of investors including Algerian state energy giant Sonatrach. NEAL ownership is Sonatrach (45%), gas utility Sonelgaz (45%) and private agro-industrial firm Semouleries Industrielles de la Mitidja (10%).
- Algeria is Africa’s 2nd-biggest country, the bulk of its 33 million people live on the northern coast and its southern desert is saturated in sun. The Algerian-Spanish hybrid solar-gas plant in the southern desert will have a 150 megawatt capacity. It is the 1stof a series of combined-cycle hybrid plants, a total planned capacity of 500 megawatts.

Algeria's got the sun. Germany's got the green. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
“El Watan reported Hasni as saying the power for the project would initially come from hybrid solar-gas plants but longer term would eventually come from solar-only ventures.