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Curzon
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Curzon

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December 3rd, 2007

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DESERTEC

Nature magazine has a fascinating article on meeting the power needs of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa with an ambitious network of renewable energies across the region titled “DESERTEC.” In a word, the Sahara Desert would be peppered with with solar thermal power plants and transmitted through massive grids, in addition to other renewable energy sources.

supergrid.jpg
The DESERTEC scenario foresees a mix of renewable energies, from wind to geothermal to biomass.

The “DESERTEC” concept could help the EU meet its apparently binding target to get 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. Of course, it wouldn’t be cheap—the current price tag is €400 billion (US$595 billion). And European politicians are reluctant to be dependent on Africa. But if oil continues its rise from $100 a barrel, we can only wonder how long it will be before pushing alternative energies can finally be justified financially.

Comments to this entry

ramjet
December 3, 2007
8:05 pm
I'm wondering how arab and gulf nations, even Iran..., let their lands being used for solar power plants, helping europe to replace the oil that they sell.
And I'm wondering how europe could depend for solar energy from the same countries from wich depends for oil.
Geopolitically speaking, europe would depend even more from external sources than now.
IJ
December 3, 2007
9:15 pm
[b]The “DESERTEC” concept could help the EU get 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. . . but it wouldn’t be cheap.[/b]

Very interesting news. We'll have to turn to renewables eventually.

The Guardian published a review yesterday. Drawbacks were said to include the uncompetitive cost of electricity produced. Secondly, some of the countries for the plants are politically unstable. Improvements in technology will lower the cost, but national politics is once again the key obstacle to keeping the lights on.

It is a very iffy project: [i]The European Parliament has asked Desertec to propose short-term demonstration projects.[/i]
Lexington Green
December 3, 2007
10:06 pm
Look at those locationsj. That is not "Africa", it is the western half of the Muslim Arab world. If the Europeans are sane, they want even less to dependent on that community, again, at great up-front expense. All that equipment would be seen as signs of imperialism and the usual litany and vandalized and attacked constantly. It would cost a fortune then have to be abandoned. You cannot locate large equipment like that outdoors in Arab countries, and make yourself reliant on it. It would be putting your head on the chopping block.

As long as the human population of those locations is what it is, this thing is a pipe dream.
subadei
December 3, 2007
11:34 pm
I would have to agree, the whole thing seems to be systems disruption waiting to happen. I could, however, envision a similar project placed in the American west in the Sonora, Mohave and Great Basin deserts. Maybe even into Mexico. But then, there's the whole environmental gauntlet to endeavor.
Lexington Green
December 4, 2007
12:00 am
"...whole environemental gauntles ..."

More a matter of NIMBYism, probably. That is probably enough to stop it in the USA.

This stuff does not really sound too unfriendly to the environment.
Michael
December 4, 2007
12:46 am
How much of the cost and risk of this system is simply the grid needed to get the electricity to Europe? If the space-faring powers (including the European Space Agency) were to develop an orbital power transmission system, the risk would be diminished-- no transformers to bomb, no wires to cut, less money sunk into tapping a particular resource. Country A falls into chaos or despotism, any other country with the energy resources can take its place in the global electricity grid.
Alfred Russel Wallace
December 4, 2007
1:36 am
I was rather taken aback at the notion of solar pv in Hampshire or Dorset (UK) as the map implies.... If that were feasible, perhaps global climate change has some real benefits for the UK!!! Several commentators at the Nature site remarked that there seemed to be no thought of moving any power to sub-Saharan Africa.....
Thomas
December 4, 2007
9:20 pm
It seems unwise to put so much of the infrastructure in Sudan & Somalia because of their instability. It would be even more unwise to put so much of it in Saudi Arabia, since they're one of the countries who's influence Europe is trying to get away from.
bitsenbloc » Blog Archive » Enllaços del.icio.sos
December 6, 2007
12:32 am
[...] DESERTEC - Mireu aquest mapa amb atenció: comença a donar idees de com anirà la geopolítica en el futur. Arribarà la UE fins al Sahara? Serà la Unió Mediterrània de Sarkozy qui protegirà la nostra energia? Moltes preguntes hi ha al darrere de les energies r [...]
Vinay Gupta
December 14, 2007
2:39 pm
Hm. This is a little premature. If you look at the new generation plastic solar panels coming out of Nanosolar first quarter of next year, this whole thing becomes entirely more plausible. But it' makes sense to delay investment until improvements in panel technology level out a little, because right now it's changing very, very fast.
Hussein Badakhchani
August 29, 2008
3:49 pm
I think the security risks raised by the commentators ignore several key factors that significantly mitigate the risk of one or more temporary, localised disruptions to energy supplies.

Firstly a large network grid is inherently more robust than bilateral pipelines or cables. While it is arguable that most of the MENA countries are not politicly stable (you can say the same of some of the new EU counties as well) by sourcing energy from all of them the risk to EU energy supplies will be significantly reduced.

The second is the vast quantities of energy that are available and the number of routes that can be used to import that energy mean that no single supplier will have overall control of the supply, further reducing risk of disruption.

Finally I would advocate energy self sufficiency for the supplier states first, funded by the World Bank. Once the infrastructure is mostly working for the suppliers new infrastructure to allow export to the EU will not be seen as colonialism rather an expansion of the suppliers reach to new markets.
IJ
August 30, 2008
9:16 am
From a comment above, We'll have to turn to renewables eventually.

Last month, The Guardian published more information on renewable energy for Europe.

A European grid for renewable energy is now thought crucial, regardless of the types of renewable energy eventually chosen by individual nations.

The grid proposal, which has won political support from both Nicholas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown, answers the perennial criticism that renewable power will never be economic because the weather is not sufficiently predictable. Its supporters argue that even if the wind is not blowing hard enough in the North Sea, it will be blowing somewhere else in Europe, or the sun will be shining on a solar farm somewhere.