Betting on the Sun
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This dates back to 1913. Almost a century ago, a solar power plant was built near Cairo. It had parabolic solar reflectors, heating tubes full of water, creating steam that powered a generator, which in turn pushed a pump that would supply water from the Nile for irrigation.
The installation was designed by Frank Schuman and had a capacity of 60 horsepower. It was abandoned soon. But it was the first attempt at harnessing solar power for electricity production. An Egyptian newspaper came with an enthusiastic headline, heralding a new era for the Tropics, promising that they would become the Horn of Plenty in energy production, and "the power plant of the whole world".
That was in 1913, and obviously it wasn't meant to be. But now, 99 years later, the idea of solar power seems to be more viable than ever (I don't know about ancient Egypt and one theory that some of the pyramids were giant power plants). Many companies are embarking on such projects today, and solar power now looks more and more like a good business, and a smart investment for the future. For example the DESERTEC Foundation, founded in 2009 as a network of scientists and private entrepreneurs from Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa. It estimates that the deserts of Earth are receiving 6 times more solar energy than the whole world consumes in a year. This foundation and a number of companies from the industry are trying to convince the world in the usefulness of a project that in its size is comparable to the Moon landing, and could be by far more significant. Only, this time we are talking about the Sun.
Assuming that by 2050 Earth's population would have reached 10 billion, humanity would be standing in front of a big challenge. In order to maintain a sustainable development which does not destroy the natural wildlife habitats and simultaneously avoids over-exploitation of the planet's resources, undoubtedly, renewable energy sources like solar power ought to gradually substitute the fossil fuels from our "menu".
And the desert regions have a good potential to play a key role in this. The logic is simple. Because direct solar radiation has always been by far the most powerful source of energy for our planet. It controls the processes in the atmosphere, it drives the engine of climate, it is the factor for life. And of course, the deserts are the areas where it is the most intense, therefore they have the best chance of feeding mankind's hunger for electric power.
The deserts of the Middle East and North Africa alone receive 630 TWh of solar power annually. This is 30 times the total world electricity production for a year. If 83,000 sq km of desert land (roughly the size of Austria) is designated to solar power plants, it could supply the amount of power that is presently consumed in the whole world.
And of course the first companies who are turning words to actions have appeared on the scene. The above mentioned Desertec Industrial Initiative to begin with. It includes Munich RE, an insurance corporation; also the technology giants Siemens and ABB, the Spanish electricity company Red Electrica, and it is supported by Greenpeace and the Club of Rome. The goal is to collaborate with the countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and by 2050 to have a situation where most of the region's electricity and 15% of Europe's electricity would be produced in Sahara (see map at the bottom of this post).
In order to meet 15% of Europe's electricity demands, about 2,000 sq km of solar panels would be enough. That is roughly the territory of Luxembourg, a dwarf country. As for the expenses, the project would swallow 400 billion euros - 50 billion for building the new power grids, and the rest for the power plants themselves. The technology is already there, what is needed is political will and funding. Lots of it...
Part of this "desert electricity" could be produced in the familiar photovoltaic installations, where solar radiation directly produces electricity. This technology works even at cloudy days, thanks to using diffused light. But the technology that Desertec proposes to dominate these projects is a bit different. It is the solar-thermic power plant. The solar energy is transformed into thermal energy, and it is used to produce electricity. This technology is called Concentrated Solar Power, CSP.
The most common CSP versions are two. First, the parabolic heliostats (light concentrators), where the sun rays are focused on absorbing tubes, using concave mirrors. The other one is using solar towers, where lots of tiny flat reflectors concentrate light onto a tower in the middle of the installation. This technology has a serious advantage compared to photovoltaic installation: a large portion of the heat produced in the process could be stored and used during the peak hours at night, which makes the system more efficient.
Granted, electricity from solar plants is still too expensive. While the wind generators produce 1 kWh of electricity at the price of 0.05 - 0.08 euros (which is comparable to a modern thermal power plant working with coal), CSP-produced electricity costs between 0.16 - 0.22 euros per kWh. For now.
It is not unreasonable to expect that in the next decade the expenses for solar power production would be cut by half, or even more. Most forecasts show that between 2020 and 2030 the electricity produced with solar power would become competitive to the conventional one where fossil fuels are used, especially when the prices of fossil fuels are constantly rising.
Right now we would hardly find a cheaper and more sustainable energy source in the long-term than solar power. When the expenses for building the solar power plants are reimbursed through efficient production, we would come to a point where we would have a reliable system for power production which would guarantee ecologically clean electricity and would remove the dependency of many countries on the whims of the fossil fuel markets. On the grander scale of things, I think the most important consequence from that would be that this process would calm down lots of geopolitical tensions that exist today in the world due to the scramble for limited, non-renewable resources.
If one wants to see how the future of solar power could look like, they should probably visit Andalucia, a region in Southern Spain. Because for the last couple of decades this warm, almost semi-desert region has become the world's solar lab. By the end of next year, Southern Spain will have thermic solar plants with a total capacity of 2400 MW (something like two nuclear power plants). And by 2020 it is expected to double.
^ This may look like a picture from a sci-fi comic to you, but actually it is already reality. This is a 140m solar tower near the highway from Cordoba to Seville. It collects solar energy producing nearly 20 MW of power. It was built a year ago and has 2650 heliostats, occupying 185 hectares. The radiation is focused upon the tower, where liquid salt is stored, and it gets heated up to 560 C. Part of that energy is used immediately to create steam, while the rest gets stored for night-time production. The system works 24/7. The collector can store 8700 tons of liquid salt. This technology allows the production of electricity when it is totally dark outside, up to 15 hours after the sun has set. And the night never lasts longer than that in Spain. This installation called Gemasolar supplies 25,000 homes with electricity, the company is Torresol Energy.
^ And this is near Guadix, again in Andalucia. No tower here. This is the other CSP technology. The company is Andasol, the first commercial power plant in Europe using parabolic solar heliostats. This particular installation occupies an area of 200 football fields. The company is the world's leader in this technology, with 1.5 million sqm of mirror surface in total. This power plant produces 150 MW of electricity, which is enough for supplying electricity to half a million people, roughly 1/3 of the metropolitan area of Seville.
But this technology has a downside too. Its primary disadvantage is the large water consumption - for cleaning the mirrors and cooling the tubes. In a perfecly self-sustainable system, the steam would be condensed into water, which would be used again and again. For the time being, each of the three blocks of the Andasol power plant consumes 870,000 m3 of water annually.
Now back to Desertec. Because many of these installations would have to be built in arid areas, cooling could be done with air there, at the expense of a slightly lower efficiency. After all, this is acceptable for North Africa because the amount and intensity of the direct solar radiation is so high that the energy losses could be easily compensated. And those installations that are located closer to the sea could use ocean water that would be desalinated using the very same energy that is produced in those plants. And the cycle would be closed.
But companies like Desertec are planning something more than just producing electricity. The goal is to develop solar technology to a point where it would help reduce the fresh water shortages in North Africa. The forecasts show that by 2030 Egypt would need water resources worth a second Nile river. And the only solution at this point is desalinisation. The recent discovery of vast water deposits throughout that part of the world notwithstanding. So far, there are big doubts that these deposits could be reached with our present technology.
If Desertec's scenario becomes reality, electricity production in North Africa and the Middle East could increase 5-6 times and would exceed 400 TWh annually. Morocco currently imports 19/20 of the energy it needs, so it announced that it will start building five solar plants with a total capacity of 2 TW. They should be ready by 2020. And later this year the plans for the first 150 MW installation should be completed.
There is also similar enthusiasm in the Gulf region. Dubai is starting a solar park on a 48 sq km area. It will use both the solar-thermic and photovoltaic systems. After the project is completed in 2030, they will produce 1000 MW of electricity. Even the IAEA, which so far mostly favours fossil fuels and nuclear power, is giving hints that it approves of this new course. It is now predicting a global breakthrough in solar energy technology. By 2050 half ot the world's electricity, and 1/3 of the world's energy as a whole, could be produced through solar power.
And the total area that is required for that? Desertec has calculated it to be less than 1% of all the desert areas of the world.
This dates back to 1913. Almost a century ago, a solar power plant was built near Cairo. It had parabolic solar reflectors, heating tubes full of water, creating steam that powered a generator, which in turn pushed a pump that would supply water from the Nile for irrigation.
The installation was designed by Frank Schuman and had a capacity of 60 horsepower. It was abandoned soon. But it was the first attempt at harnessing solar power for electricity production. An Egyptian newspaper came with an enthusiastic headline, heralding a new era for the Tropics, promising that they would become the Horn of Plenty in energy production, and "the power plant of the whole world".
That was in 1913, and obviously it wasn't meant to be. But now, 99 years later, the idea of solar power seems to be more viable than ever (I don't know about ancient Egypt and one theory that some of the pyramids were giant power plants). Many companies are embarking on such projects today, and solar power now looks more and more like a good business, and a smart investment for the future. For example the DESERTEC Foundation, founded in 2009 as a network of scientists and private entrepreneurs from Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa. It estimates that the deserts of Earth are receiving 6 times more solar energy than the whole world consumes in a year. This foundation and a number of companies from the industry are trying to convince the world in the usefulness of a project that in its size is comparable to the Moon landing, and could be by far more significant. Only, this time we are talking about the Sun.
Assuming that by 2050 Earth's population would have reached 10 billion, humanity would be standing in front of a big challenge. In order to maintain a sustainable development which does not destroy the natural wildlife habitats and simultaneously avoids over-exploitation of the planet's resources, undoubtedly, renewable energy sources like solar power ought to gradually substitute the fossil fuels from our "menu".
And the desert regions have a good potential to play a key role in this. The logic is simple. Because direct solar radiation has always been by far the most powerful source of energy for our planet. It controls the processes in the atmosphere, it drives the engine of climate, it is the factor for life. And of course, the deserts are the areas where it is the most intense, therefore they have the best chance of feeding mankind's hunger for electric power.
The deserts of the Middle East and North Africa alone receive 630 TWh of solar power annually. This is 30 times the total world electricity production for a year. If 83,000 sq km of desert land (roughly the size of Austria) is designated to solar power plants, it could supply the amount of power that is presently consumed in the whole world.
And of course the first companies who are turning words to actions have appeared on the scene. The above mentioned Desertec Industrial Initiative to begin with. It includes Munich RE, an insurance corporation; also the technology giants Siemens and ABB, the Spanish electricity company Red Electrica, and it is supported by Greenpeace and the Club of Rome. The goal is to collaborate with the countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and by 2050 to have a situation where most of the region's electricity and 15% of Europe's electricity would be produced in Sahara (see map at the bottom of this post).
In order to meet 15% of Europe's electricity demands, about 2,000 sq km of solar panels would be enough. That is roughly the territory of Luxembourg, a dwarf country. As for the expenses, the project would swallow 400 billion euros - 50 billion for building the new power grids, and the rest for the power plants themselves. The technology is already there, what is needed is political will and funding. Lots of it...
Part of this "desert electricity" could be produced in the familiar photovoltaic installations, where solar radiation directly produces electricity. This technology works even at cloudy days, thanks to using diffused light. But the technology that Desertec proposes to dominate these projects is a bit different. It is the solar-thermic power plant. The solar energy is transformed into thermal energy, and it is used to produce electricity. This technology is called Concentrated Solar Power, CSP.
The most common CSP versions are two. First, the parabolic heliostats (light concentrators), where the sun rays are focused on absorbing tubes, using concave mirrors. The other one is using solar towers, where lots of tiny flat reflectors concentrate light onto a tower in the middle of the installation. This technology has a serious advantage compared to photovoltaic installation: a large portion of the heat produced in the process could be stored and used during the peak hours at night, which makes the system more efficient.
Granted, electricity from solar plants is still too expensive. While the wind generators produce 1 kWh of electricity at the price of 0.05 - 0.08 euros (which is comparable to a modern thermal power plant working with coal), CSP-produced electricity costs between 0.16 - 0.22 euros per kWh. For now.
It is not unreasonable to expect that in the next decade the expenses for solar power production would be cut by half, or even more. Most forecasts show that between 2020 and 2030 the electricity produced with solar power would become competitive to the conventional one where fossil fuels are used, especially when the prices of fossil fuels are constantly rising.
Right now we would hardly find a cheaper and more sustainable energy source in the long-term than solar power. When the expenses for building the solar power plants are reimbursed through efficient production, we would come to a point where we would have a reliable system for power production which would guarantee ecologically clean electricity and would remove the dependency of many countries on the whims of the fossil fuel markets. On the grander scale of things, I think the most important consequence from that would be that this process would calm down lots of geopolitical tensions that exist today in the world due to the scramble for limited, non-renewable resources.
If one wants to see how the future of solar power could look like, they should probably visit Andalucia, a region in Southern Spain. Because for the last couple of decades this warm, almost semi-desert region has become the world's solar lab. By the end of next year, Southern Spain will have thermic solar plants with a total capacity of 2400 MW (something like two nuclear power plants). And by 2020 it is expected to double.
^ This may look like a picture from a sci-fi comic to you, but actually it is already reality. This is a 140m solar tower near the highway from Cordoba to Seville. It collects solar energy producing nearly 20 MW of power. It was built a year ago and has 2650 heliostats, occupying 185 hectares. The radiation is focused upon the tower, where liquid salt is stored, and it gets heated up to 560 C. Part of that energy is used immediately to create steam, while the rest gets stored for night-time production. The system works 24/7. The collector can store 8700 tons of liquid salt. This technology allows the production of electricity when it is totally dark outside, up to 15 hours after the sun has set. And the night never lasts longer than that in Spain. This installation called Gemasolar supplies 25,000 homes with electricity, the company is Torresol Energy.
^ And this is near Guadix, again in Andalucia. No tower here. This is the other CSP technology. The company is Andasol, the first commercial power plant in Europe using parabolic solar heliostats. This particular installation occupies an area of 200 football fields. The company is the world's leader in this technology, with 1.5 million sqm of mirror surface in total. This power plant produces 150 MW of electricity, which is enough for supplying electricity to half a million people, roughly 1/3 of the metropolitan area of Seville.
But this technology has a downside too. Its primary disadvantage is the large water consumption - for cleaning the mirrors and cooling the tubes. In a perfecly self-sustainable system, the steam would be condensed into water, which would be used again and again. For the time being, each of the three blocks of the Andasol power plant consumes 870,000 m3 of water annually.
Now back to Desertec. Because many of these installations would have to be built in arid areas, cooling could be done with air there, at the expense of a slightly lower efficiency. After all, this is acceptable for North Africa because the amount and intensity of the direct solar radiation is so high that the energy losses could be easily compensated. And those installations that are located closer to the sea could use ocean water that would be desalinated using the very same energy that is produced in those plants. And the cycle would be closed.
But companies like Desertec are planning something more than just producing electricity. The goal is to develop solar technology to a point where it would help reduce the fresh water shortages in North Africa. The forecasts show that by 2030 Egypt would need water resources worth a second Nile river. And the only solution at this point is desalinisation. The recent discovery of vast water deposits throughout that part of the world notwithstanding. So far, there are big doubts that these deposits could be reached with our present technology.
If Desertec's scenario becomes reality, electricity production in North Africa and the Middle East could increase 5-6 times and would exceed 400 TWh annually. Morocco currently imports 19/20 of the energy it needs, so it announced that it will start building five solar plants with a total capacity of 2 TW. They should be ready by 2020. And later this year the plans for the first 150 MW installation should be completed.
There is also similar enthusiasm in the Gulf region. Dubai is starting a solar park on a 48 sq km area. It will use both the solar-thermic and photovoltaic systems. After the project is completed in 2030, they will produce 1000 MW of electricity. Even the IAEA, which so far mostly favours fossil fuels and nuclear power, is giving hints that it approves of this new course. It is now predicting a global breakthrough in solar energy technology. By 2050 half ot the world's electricity, and 1/3 of the world's energy as a whole, could be produced through solar power.
And the total area that is required for that? Desertec has calculated it to be less than 1% of all the desert areas of the world.
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Date: 13/5/12 20:24 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 13/5/12 15:14 (UTC)Nevertheless, solar energy is so abundant that it's pretty obviously the great untapped resource of our time. It's essentially limitless given our current power needs, it gets everywhere, and most large countries who are looking for energy needs have some nearby source of it.
The one thing they're still missing though is an adequate storage system. There are lots of plans to generate electricity, but except for using solar as daytime power support (in areas with high A/C loads or industrial use), there just aren't that many plans to keep electricity going throughout the day and night. That's what we're all secretly waiting for I think.
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Date: 13/5/12 16:55 (UTC)The end.
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Date: 13/5/12 19:04 (UTC)We have to do something incredibly drastic now We're the Titanic and we seem indifferent about our collision.
Check out how much C02 increased just last year. 3 parts per million in a single year.
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Date: 13/5/12 19:21 (UTC)Study links biodiversity and language loss (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18020636)
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Date: 13/5/12 19:35 (UTC)That tower, it could be used as a Death Star, right?
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Date: 13/5/12 20:17 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 13/5/12 23:06 (UTC)it's a very fitting area for this type of energy.
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Date: 14/5/12 04:49 (UTC)We've had them in California since the 80's. I wrote the software for the [new] mirror controllers in the SEGS 1 plant in '98, and those controllers are still being used as far as I know.
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Date: 14/5/12 10:03 (UTC)(no subject)
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