NewEnergyNews: BEGINNING TO SEE THE SUN IN NO. AFRICA AND THE MIDEAST/

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Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

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YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

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    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

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    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
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    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Sunday, January 25, 2009

    BEGINNING TO SEE THE SUN IN NO. AFRICA AND THE MIDEAST

    Energy planners in Europe, burdened by the choice of getting natural gas to generate electricity either from Iran or Russia, are beginning to think of the Sahara Desert as a huge solar energy power plant.

    Time Magazine: “In theory, a 35,000-sq.-mi. (90,600 sq km) chunk of the Sahara — smaller than Portugal and a little over 1% of its total area — could yield the same amount of electricity as all the world's power plants combined. A smaller square of 6,000 sq. mi. (15,500 sq km) — about the size of Connecticut — could provide electricity for Europe's 500 million people.”


    click to enlarge

    None of the EU energy planners has yet suggested building a solar power plant as big as Portugal or Connecticut. But they are excitedly studying solar power plant technologies.

    There’s one small problem: The Sahara Desert is a long way from Rome and Madrid and Paris and London and Berlin. Getting the solar energy-generated electricity from the desert to the cities will be expensive.

    12,000 miles (19,300 km) of new high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission to cross the Mediterranean Sea and to replace existing antiquated wires would provide for 20% of Europe’s electricity. To make such a project happen, EU governments would likely have to subsidize a $465-billion expenditure over 40 years. Is that something worth undertaking during a recession?

    French President Nicolas Sarkozy led the formation of the Mediterranean Union, 43 European, North African and Middle Eastern countries, to prepare for undertaking the project because he thinks it is worth the expense.

    German solar energy prophet Hermann Scheer does not: "They underestimate the real production costs of the Sahara's sandstorms, and the fact that it would take many, many years to build the transmission grid…It is not true that it would lead to cheaper power if you take into account all these elements."

    Pilot Saharan plants are now being built in Algeria, Morroco and Egypt and EU incentives for New Energy will be applied to the initial financing of power plant and transmission grid development. Progress so far, however, is too slow for Nicholas Dunlop, the secretary-general of e-Parliament, an NGO involved in North African development: "I fear the E.U. could talk this thing to death…"

    Dunlop organized a conference for representatives of EU governments and is pushing for small transmission projects to begin making the dream into reality.

    Dunlop: "I call it the Lego method…Build it piece by piece."

    Across Suez, on the edge of the Persian Gulf, one of those pieces is nearing completion. The breathtakingly ambitious Masdar Initiative’s 10-megawatt, $50 million solar power plant for Masdar City is in its final stages of construction. Its designers and builders hope it is just the beginning of a new era in the Middle East energy business.

    Sami Khoreibi, CEO, Enviromena Power Systems: "We hope to use this project as a launching pad…"


    click to enlarge

    Panels made by China’s Suntech and thin film materials manufacturer First Solar, a U.S. company, are being used in the Masdar solar power plant. Each company is supplying 5 megawatts of the capacity. Tests of other solar technologies are ongoing under the Middle East’s intense and challenging sun.

    Dr. Samir Tabu Zaid, solar energy executive, Masdar Initiative: "We're testing and constantly analyzing the data, and using it for our procurement process…"

    Final plans call for Masdar City to get 80% of its power from solar, requiring a total solar power plant capacity of about 250 megawatts.

    It remains to be seen whether Masdar’s ambitous plans are workable. Its success could be a precursor to Europe’s transition to a solar-powered future.

    Khaled Awad, director of property development, Masdar: "This city is supposed to be a destination for innovation."

    It is such innovation and application in energy instead of weaponry and tactics that will bring the future to the sun-drenched reaches of the Arab world and, not coincidentally, free Europe from dependence on Old Energy and old foes.


    From uaememories via YouTube.

    Out of Africa: Saharan Solar Energy
    Vivienne Walt, January 14, 2009 (Time Magazine)
    and
    Abu Dhabi's Amazing Clean Energy Bet
    Marc Gunther, January 18, 2009 (Green Biz)

    WHO
    Michael Pawlyn, director, Exploration Architecture (part of the Sahara Forest Project); Gerry Wolff, engineer/head, DESERTEC; Gunnar Asplund, head of high voltage direct current transmission (HVDC) research, ABB Power Technologies; Sami Khoreibi, CEO, Enviromena Power Systems; Suntech; First Solar; Applied Materials; CH2MHill (Ralph Peterson, CEO); The Masdar Iniative, parent company of Masdar City

    WHAT
    Solar power plant technology, now being perfected in Masdar City, could generate electricity in the Sahara Desert and, with adequate HVDC transmission, provide all the electricity Europe needs for the long-term foreseeable future.

    click to enlarge

    WHEN
    - The first solar power plants were put into operation in the late 1980s.
    - The Masdar Institute is expected to open later in 2009.
    - Masdar has field tested 33 types of solar photovoltaic systems from 15 countries since 2007.

    WHERE
    - The Sahara Desert is 3.32 million-sq.-mi. (8.6 million sq km).
    - The UK’s Sahara Forest Project is testing solar plants in Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
    - The first solar power plants were in California’s Mojave Desert.
    - Hybrid natural gas-solar power plants are being built in Algeria, Morocco and Egypt.
    - Abu Dhabi is the largest of the 7 United Arab Emirates
    - Enviromena Power Systems is based in Abu Dhabi.
    - Masdar is testing solar panels and systems from the U.S., China, Japan, Taiwan, Spain, Germany and other countries.

    click to enlarge

    WHY
    - The Sahara is roughly twice as big as Western Europe but almost without buildings, roads and people and therefore could readily accommodate large solar power plants.
    - Scaling up solar power plant technology to produce enough electricity to be meaningful would require hundreds of miles of arrays of mirrors and pipes across remote Saharan terrain estimated to cost ~$59 billion to begin service by 2020.
    - An average of 1,000 watts per sq m are constantly hittingthe earth.
    - 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle Eastern deserts would provide all of Europe's energy needs.
    - 35,000 sq. mi. of solar power plant technology (slightly smaller than Portugal) would generate as much power as the world's power plants
    - The Sahara Forest Project plans to build solar power plants in existing geologic depressions below sea level where inflowing seawater will be distilled and used to drive turbines and wash dust off the power plant mirrors. Wastewater will irrigate around the plants to grow oases, the forests in the company’s name.
    - Abu Dhabi’s royal family controls ~9.2% of world oil reserves.
    - Why the Abu Dhabi royal family is committed to New Energy and Energy Efficiency:
    (1) The family knows energy, the biggest business in the world;
    (2) They are in a position to know oil is peaking;
    (3) At the edge of desert, surrounded by undeveloped economies, they understand the threat of global climate change;
    (4) They can afford it;
    (5) A king gets very little NIMBY opposition.
    - The 10-megawatt solar power plant for Masdar City occupies 55 acres and will have 87,777 panels.
    - U.S. companies working on the Masdar City project: First Solar, Applied Materials, CH2MHill
    - The Masdar Institute at Masdar City is a graduate school and reseach facility being developed in cooperation with MIT. It will begin with ~250 faculty and staff and ~150 students.

    From OneHeartChannel via YouTube.

    QUOTES
    - Time Magazine: “For years the Sahara has been regarded by many Europeans as a terra incognita of little economic value or importance. But this perception may be headed for a drastic overhaul. Politicians and scientists on both sides of the Med are beginning to focus on the Sahara's potential to power Europe for centuries to come.”
    - Michael Pawlyn, director, Exploration Architecture (part of the Sahara Forest Project): "I admit I was skeptical until I did the calculations myself…[the Sahara’s solar energy potential is] staggering…"
    - Gunnar Asplund, head of high voltage direct current transmission (HVDC) research, ABB Power Technologies: "Of course it costs a lot of money…It's a lot cheaper to burn coal than to make solar power in the Sahara."

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