Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation
From Wikipedia
The Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC)[1] is an initiative, in the field of renewable forms of energy, of The Club of Rome, the Hamburg Climate Protection Foundation and the National Energy Research Center of Jordan (NERC).
The core of TREC is an international network of scientists, politicians and experts in the field of renewable forms of energy and their development. The members of TREC (nearly 50 in number including His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan) are in regular contact with national governments and with private investors, aiming to communicate the benefits that may be obtained from the cooperative use of solar and wind energy and promoting specific projects in this field.
Since it was founded in September 2003, it has developed the DESERTEC concept for energy, water and climate security in EUrope, the Middle East and North Africa (EU-MENA), building on the cooperation of sun-belt and technology belt. The DESERTEC concept of TREC is to boost the generation of electricity and desalinated water by Solar Thermal Power Plants and wind turbines in MENA and to transmit the clean electrical power via High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines throughout those areas and (with overall just 10-15% transmission losses) to Europe. Now TREC is making this concept a reality in cooperation with people in politics, industry and the world of finance.
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[سمادول] The Situation
On the one hand it's certain that up to the middle of the 21st century, humanity will have used up a majority of the fossil fuel resources available on Earth to meet the demands of power plants and vehicles (see also Peak Oil). A noticeable reduction in worldwide demands for fossil fuels is not in sight, although such a reduction is essential to contain the threat of Global Warming. And on the other hand it's also certain, that even if there was a small reduction in demand, this would merely postpone the day when fossil fuels run out.
Consequently only a shift to renewable forms of energy can be a long-term solution to looming problems of energy shortages and damage to the environment. Even though there is great potential in the European continent for wind, hydro, geothermal and solar power, the utilization of these sources of energy are comparatively costly and have a range of limitations in Europe, denseley populated as it is. Also, in Europe power demands are high in winter while solar radiation is low.
[سمادول] Two Reports by DLR
(see external links too)
TREC was founded with the goal of providing clean energy for Europe and for sunbelt countries quickly and enconomically through a cooperation between the countries of EUrope, the Middle East and North Africa (short: EU-MENA). Power from deserts, as a supplement to European sources of renewable energy, can speed up the process of cutting European emissions of CO2 and it can help to increase the security of European energy supplies. At the same time, it can provide jobs, earnings and other benefits for people in North Africa and the Middle East.
TREC has been involved in the conduct of two studies which have evaluated the potential of renewables in MENA, the expected needs for water and power in EU-MENA between now and 2050 and the potential for an intercontinental electricity transmission grid spanning the whole of EU-MENA. Those two studies were commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conversation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and, starting in 2004, they have been conducted by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The ‘MED-CSP’ report was produced in 2005 and the ‘TRANS-CSP’ report was completed in 2006. (see external links too).
[سمادول] The DESERTEC Concept
Satellite-based studies by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have shown that, using less than 0.3% of the entire desert areas of the MENA region, Solar Thermal Power Plants can generate enough electricity to supply current demands in EU-MENA, and anticipated increases in those demands in the future. In addition, it has potential to alleviate shortages of fresh water in the MENA regions. The trade winds of southern Morocco may be harnessed to generate additional supplies of electricity. Clean electricity can be transmitted via High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines throughout EU-MENA with overall transmission losses that would be no more than 10-15%. The Club of Rome and TREC are both supporting this DESERTEC concept of putting technology and deserts into service for energy, water and climate security. Countries like Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Morocco and the United Emirates have already shown a strong interest in this kind of cooperation.
[سمادول] The Technology
The best solar power technology for providing secure capacity is Solar Thermal Power Plants (also called Concentrating Solar Thermal Power, CSP). They use mirrors to concentrate sunlight to raise steam and generate electricity. Excess heat from additional collectors can be stored in tanks of molten salt and then be used to power the steam turbines during the night, or when there is a peak in demand. In order to ensure uninterrupted service during overcast periods or bad weather, the turbines can also be powered by oil, natural gas or biomass fuels. An interesting by-product that can be a great benefit to the local population is that waste heat from the power-generation process can be used to desalinate seawater and to generate thermal cooling. Since photovoltaics do not allow for solar energy storage they will not play a significant role in desert regions.
With the technology of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) power, transmission losses can be limited to only about 3% per 1000 km. The better solar radiation in North Africa outweighs by far the transmission losses across the Mediterranean of 10-15% to Europe. Although hydrogen has in the past been proposed as an energy vector, this form of transmission is very much less efficient than HVDC transmission lines.
[سمادول] The Feasibility
Possible indicators of the total EU-MENA High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) interconnection and Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) plants from 2020 – 2050 according to the TRANS-CSP scenario.
The technologies that are needed to realise this concept are already fully developed and have been in use for decades. HVDC transmission lines up to 1.5 GW capacity have been utilized for many years by ABB and Siemens. If more power is to be transmitted, more than one line can be used. At the World Energy Dialogue 2006 in Hanover, Germany, both companies have confirmed that the implementation of a Trans-Mediterranean energy cooperative is, technically, not a problem at all.
Solar Thermal Power Plants such as, for example Parabolic Trough Power Plants, have been in use commercially at Kramer Junction in California since 1985. Further solar power plants are actually planned or in construction e.g. in Nevada and Spain, with German, Spanish and US companies playing a major role. Solar Thermal Power Plants can generate electricity in the deserts of MENA at all times of the day and night, throughout the year. The DLR has calculated that, if Solar Thermal Power Plants were to be constructed in large numbers in the coming years, the estimated cost (including transmission cost) will come down to about 5 EuroCent/kWh.
In order to establish, by 2050, a transmission grid and a capacity of 100 GW of exportable solar power, over and above the domestic needs of Sunbelt countries, the required governmental financial support would be less than 10 billion Euros. Given that level of support for feed-in regulations, the construction of the solar power plants and the necessary transmission grid would very soon be attractive to investors, both private and public. The total investment that would be needed would be about 400 billion Euros over 30 years. An exact investment forecast for the TRANS-CSP scenario has been researched by the DLR.
[سمادول] Security of Supply
Imports of fuels such as uranium, natural gas and oil, are considered to be politically risky, since the global reserves are shrinking inexorably. This is leading to higher prices, to political dependencies and to limits on supplies. By contrast, solar power is plentiful and inexhaustible, and its extended use will lower costs and improve the technologies. Increased demand by Europe would lead to more business opportunities for the MENA countries. This in turn may help to increase political stability and improve relations between Europe and MENA.
Too large a dependence on one country and on only a few power plants can be avoided by diversifying the range of sources of renewable energy, as illustrated by the figures showing large numbers of solar power plants and wind farms in many countries — and by of the use of several different HVDC transmission lines to Europe. Possible worries about security of supply will also be reduced if there are many different owners of the facilities, both public and private.
By 2050, between 10-40% of Europe’s electricity may be clean power that is imported from the deserts. International trade in renewable energy will tend to increase the number of available sources and should help to strengthen international stability. The creation of new jobs in the MENA region should enhance its internal stability. Employment would be created in construction phase, in the maintenance of power plants, and in the generation of electricity and water for local people.
There is also the possibility of generating hydrogen through inexpensive and inexhaustible supplies of energy as a possible substitute for fossil fuels for transport.
[سمادول] The Required General Conditions
As currently seen in Spain, nominal governmental aid will help to develop energy projects like TREC. Realizing the concept of TREC will only require guaranteed acceptance of the electricity and water, favourable loans and loan guarantees. A few billion Euros could kick start the investment needed for the production and transmission of solar power. Then Europe and its partner states would be able to benefit from cheap, pollution-free and inexhaustible solar power. It would also mean that nuclear power with all its many headaches could be phased out and likewise for traditional fossil power stations.
[سمادول] Advantages of Implementation of the Concept
[سمادول] Avoidance of negative consequences
- Reduction of conflicts for water and fuel resources in the future.
- Avoidance of human and financial losses from environmental disasters caused by the burning of fossil fuels and by the use of nuclear technology for the purpose of generating energy.
- Avoidance of necessity for further nuclear power plants (as a temporary but controversial alternative to solar energy) in EU-MENA (EUrope, the Middle East and North Africa) (see also anti-nuclear).
[سمادول] Further for business sector, public and environment
- The upgrade of desert space to potential sources of inexhaustible power-houses and water-works.
- Long-term supplies of clean energy and drinking water for EU-MENA.
- Transition to an economy based on knowledge and technological competence in MENA countries. This could give them the capacity to eliminate underdevelopment and poverty by their own strengths.
- Large orders for companies involved in the construction of Thermal Solar Power Plants, wind turbines and HVDC transmission lines, as well as hundreds of thousands of jobs mainly in industry; in Europe as well as in the Middle East and in North Africa.
- Increasingly competitive prices for electrical power via economies of scale and progressive refinement of Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP), wind power and transmission technologies.
- With the clean energy it may become possible to produce low-priced hydrogen. Hydrogen may be used to rise the effectiveness of the Choren-Process for the production of BtL-Fuel ("SunDiesel") or to facilitate a conversion to hydrogen-fuel-cell-technology for automobiles.
- Setting a good example for other industrial countries.
[سمادول] A way to implement the DESERTEC concept
As a means of implementing the DESERTEC concept, TREC proposes an initiative that would be as ambitious as the Apollo SPACE program that took people to the moon. In addition to feed-in regulations and other measures in support of clean power generation from the deserts, this Apollo ‘DESERTEC’ program could be boosted by three projects that are technically possible, but require financial and political support:
- Gaza Project: To build solar thermal power plants for the generation of electricity and desalination of sea-water using solar energy. These plants, part of a potential international recovery programme for Gaza, could be located at suitable places in the Egyptian Sinai coastal region, with appropriate water and power lines into the Gaza strip, providing supplies for 2-3 Million people. This project could become a turning point in the currently disastrous social problems of Gaza, in the regional conflicts for water and in the stalled peace process between Israel and Palestine. The total investment required would be about 5 billion Euros.
- Sana’a Project: For the Yemenite Capital Sana’a, which is confronted with the possible exhaustion of its ground water reserves in about 15 years, to build desalination and power plants near the Red Sea, powered by solar energy, that will generate fresh water for Sana’a and, at the same time, will produce the power that will be needed to pump the fresh water through pipe lines to the city at an altitude of 2200 meters. This Sana’a project could avoid a looming humanitarian disaster and social unrest in Yemen, and would save a cultural heritage of world-wide significance. Moving 2 million people from Sana’a to new settlements would cost more than 27 billion Euros. This is very much more expensive than the 5 billion Euros needed for the alternative plan: to let people to stay where they are living already and build solar power plants and a pipeline to supply them with water and electricity.
- South-North grid: To begin construction of a large scale South-North grid for the transmission of clean power from desert regions to Europe until 2020, as infrastructure for energy and climate security. A high-capacity grid for the transmission of inexpensive and clean power to Europe would create a boom of investments in MENA countries in Solar Thermal Power Plants and wind farms. The construction of HVDC transmission grids for the first 10 GW would cost about 5 billion Euros.
The implementation of just one of the first two projects would help bring the technology of solar steam generators to the point where it would undercut the costs of most fossil fuels. Such low cost solar steam generators would facilitate the development of desert areas all over the world as solar power houses and, in the vicinity of coasts, as inexhaustible sources of fresh water. Together with a South-North grid the Gaza and the Sana’a projects could become key projects in a ‘Copernican’ revolution towards global balance and sustainability. As suggested in the recent Stern report, this kind of investment would be safer and much cheaper than letting climate change proceed unchecked, and then paying for the resulting damage.
By the middle of the 21st century, the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East could provide most of the power needed in the MENA region, and become inexhaustible sources of clean energy for European countries, thus helping to bring down emissions of Greenhouse gases to a sustainable level. In the scenario described in reports from the DLR, it will be possible to cut emissions of CO2 from electricity generation by 70% and phase out nuclear power at the same time – with decreasing electricity costs in the long-term.
[سمادول] Criticism
Importing electricity is risky, where political considerations are concerned. Furthermore the political barriers are high, because for a realisation of the concept a cooperation between the states of Europe (France prefers nuclear power generation) and the states of the MENA-region would be necessary.
A realisation of the concept would be rather easier inside one national confederation (e.g. Australia or the USA). Indeed the peak scientific body in Australia, the CSIRO, has said Australia's national electicity grid could be fully powered from solar-thermal power by 2020, and solar-thermal power stations in southern California have shown their viability over the past 15 years, such that neighbouring states of New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona are adopting similar technology.
[سمادول] Notes and References
- ↑ Homepage of TREC (The whole contents of this website are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.)
- Study on MED-CSP – Study of the DLR for BMU from 2005
- Study TRANS-CSP on an Intercontinental Transfer of Solar Energy – A DLR Study for the BMU from 2006
- Download of a report of Greenpeace: Concentrated Solar Thermal Power - Now! (PDF, 1,3 MB)
- [http://www.schott.com/solar/english/download/schott_memorandum_e.pdf Download of a Memorandum about the potential of
