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08 Nov 2009

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) uses the suns heat to generate steam for a conventional turbine-generator set. The club of Rome and a study commissioned by the German government, argue that CSP can already compete with existing forms of generation - particularly when it is combined with desalination ( a valuable extra benefit in desert areas). But CSP is not likely to grow from thousands of small installations as solar PV has done. Firstly the technology is not suited to small household installations - a typical CSP plant will be tens to hundreds of Megawatts. Secondly CSP plants are best built in hot desert areas thus requiring investment in long low-loss transmission cables. In engineering terms however, CSP has some nice features:

- It is a mature straightforward technology - some plants have already been running for over 20 years. Like PV, CSP is eminently suited to mass production since plants mainly consist of hundreds of identical units - mirrors mounted on metal frames.

- CSP plants can store energy as heat (e.g. in hot salts) allowing them to continue operating through the night. As CSP plants supplying Europe would be located a long way south (ideally North Africa and the Middle East) they also still receive plenty of sun in winter.

There are various actions we can take to back the project described on these websites:
- Desertec UK site: www.trec-uk.org.uk
- Desertec main site: http://www.desertec.org/en/concept/

[Summary, from http://www.openengineering.talktalk.net/solargrowth.html#solarcsp]

Photo shows the recently built CSP plant near Seville, Spain.

Comments

  • Solar power from Sahara a step closer
    The German-led Desertec initiative believes it can deliver power to Europe as early as 2015 http://bit.ly/3tmvhC

    Written by Nicola Gunstone on 09 Nov 2009, at 10:14 Report this comment

  • I think the majority of the world's problems at the moment stem from the West's over-reliance on oil from the Middle East and North Africa. Some pretty major conflicts need to be resolved before the West should consider the region supplying electricity. Afganistan, Iraq, Israel are still major issues and the West will need to develop better relations with 'rogue' states like Libya and Iran.

    Then there is always the chance that if Gaddafi gets his way, he will be leader of the United States of Africa!

    http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/682190/-/uolqfu/-/

    Written by John Jackson on 17 Nov 2009, at 11:37 Report this comment

  • This project is one of many, focussed on using otherwise barren deserts as sites for solar power projects. There are formidable technological and logistical problems involved. Perhaps the greatest is that the best locations are distant from the major population centres - so involve potentially huge power losses on transmission. So, rather than solving Europe's energy problems, we need to see this as solving Africa's poverty problems. In India, they plan to cover the Thar desert, on the Indo-Pakistan border, with solar panels. This is close to major population centres in Gujarat and Sind, and could also help build peaceful relations between the two nuclear-armed powers.

    Written by James Arnold-Baker on 24 Nov 2009, at 11:56 Report this comment

  • Thankyou for the comments so far. I understand the concerns about political and technological difficulties referred to by John and James. These are real concerns and they are dealt with in detail on the Deserteq FAQ page ( http://www.desertec.org/en/concept/faq/ ) and even more fully in the supporting documents available for download. I should also mention that DESERTEC is actually not just a solar power project but a complete plan for how Europe can generate its electricity from a range of renewable sources, linked by a low-loss High Voltage DC transmission grid.

    Lastly I would like to emphasise why this is so important. The consortium just set up to start work on Desertec is planning a $400bn project (see Nicola's link or here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8337735.stm ) which dwarfs the recent UK announcement of 10 nuclear power stations (by perhaps tenfold). Yet it is scarcely mentioned in the UK and is completely ignored in the governments energy consultation, even though it represents by far the biggest source of sustainable energy of any kind available to Europe. Germany is a northern European country and is leading the Desertec initiative - so there is no reason why the UK couldn't also participate. We need to start campaigning!

    Written by Don on 27 Nov 2009, at 23:19 Report this comment

  • I agree with James in that we need to solve some problems in Africa before we might be able to rely on the region for 15% of our electricity.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/africa_enl_1257176211/html/1.stm

    Looking at this map it does seem like a very comprehensive renewable plan, but I would be interested to see percentages of total electricty generated by area. Iceland is having wind, geothermal and hydro, how much of Iceland's total electricity would this provide? Would they, as a nation, be entitled to use all of it, or send it out to another country?

    On the plus side, I can see the benefits of $400 billion being spent across the EU and Africa!

    Written by John Jackson on 01 Dec 2009, at 14:44 Report this comment

  • DESERTEC is Happening! Morocco plans 2GW of solar capacity.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Morocco has announced a huge solar energy development:

    "In November 2009 Morocco announced it will install 2 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2020. The first of its five planned CSP stations will be a 500-megawatt plant in the southern town of Ouarzazate. Morocccan energy minister Amina Benkhadra says Morocco has already received expressions of interest from several large foreign companies. When finished in 2020, the five solar plants will account for 38% of Morocco’s total installed power-generation capacity, while covering 20% of its total electricity requirements. Morocco is sharpening its elbows to compete with neighbouring North African countries Algeria, Tunisia and Libya for a slice of the €400bn ($573.8bn) bonanza expected to come from the Desertec Industrial Initiative. "

    ( From: http://www.rechargenews.com/energy/solar/article202819.ece )

    Several of the countries where CSP plants would be located are currently oil or gas exporters (though not Morocco). When that business goes their economies could collapse - Desertec is a lifeline for them providing a sustainable source of employment and energy.

    Written by Don on 14 Feb 2010, at 06:23 Report this comment


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