Solar Power for Europe from Sahara
Solar Power For Europe From Sahara
Read about plans to power EU entirely from solar electricity generated in Sahara Desert
solar | newsArnulf Jaeger-Walden of the European Commission's
Institute for Energy has declared at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona that European
carbon emissions could be slashed by generating solar electricity in the Sahara Desert. Scientists have calculated that if just 0.3% of the
solar energy falling on deserts in the Middle East and Sahara could be captured, it could meet 100% of the electricity needs of Europe.
Algeria are already buiding a combined solar/gas power station which will produce its first electricity by 2010 and is planned to export
6GW of solar power to Europe by 2020 - equivalent to the output of 6 typical modern
nuclear power stations. However,
enormous investment would be required if the whole of Europe were to be powered by North African solar power. Scientists working on this project have calculated that an investment of
450 Billion Euro during the next 40 years would be necessary to reach
100GW output - where 100GW is about the same as the total power output of all power stations in the UK combined today.
Generating Electricity in the Sahara Desert
There are two main types of solar generation planned for North Africa. The first is standard
photovoltaic solar panels (PV). Thanks to the number of sunshine hours, the clean dry air, and the latitude of the Sahara Desert, a solar panel installed there will generate up to
3x as much power than it would if it was installed in the UK.
The second (and more likely) is to use
concentrated solar power (CSP) - an array of mirrors which focus the sun's rays onto a single point to make super-heated steam to turn a turbine (pictured above). See our article
First European Solar Power Tower for information on how this technology is already being used in Southern Spain.
European Supergrid - HVDC Transmission
If
renewable energy is to be used to power Europe, then a new low-loss electricity grid will need to be constructed. The UK national grid for example transmits high voltage
AC (alternating current) electricity along thick cables. This works well over the relatively short transmission distances, but if surplus
wind energy from UK is to be used in Bulgaria, or if Saharan solar electricity is to be used in UK, more efficient transmission would be essential.
The plan is to create a Europe-wide
supergrid of
low loss high voltage
DC (direct current) cables.
HVDC cables have energy losses as low as
3% per 1000km, and their use will make it easier for countries which generate AC electricity at different frequencies to synchronise and pool
green electricity. Current estimates put the cost of such a
supergrid at around
45 Billion Euro.
Recommended Link
Click here to visit the
TREC-UK website. TREC stands for
Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation
- an initiative which promotes the benefits of collecting
sunlight energy falling on barren
desert regions and generating electricity to power the world.
Article Last Modified: 09:43, 23rd Jul 2008
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