desertec.org/ DESERTEC is a project supported by a foundation of the same name and the consortium Dii (Desertec industrial initiative) created in Germany as a limited liability company (GmbH). The project aims at creating a global renewable energy plan based on the concept of harnessing sustainable power from sites where renewable sources of energy are more abundant and transferring it through high-voltage direct current transmission to consumption centers. All kinds of renewable energy sources are envisioned, but the sun-rich deserts of the world play a special role. By taking into account land and water use, DESERTEC is intended to offer an integrated solution to food and water shortages in the coming decades. DESERTEC was developed by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), a voluntary organization founded in 2003 by the Club of Rome and the National Energy Research Center Jordan, made up of scientists and experts from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EU-MENA). It is from this network that the DESERTEC Foundation later emerged as a non-profit organization tasked with promoting the DESERTEC solution around the world. Founding members of the foundation are the German Association of the Club of Rome, members of the network of scientists TREC as well as committed private supporters and long-time promoters of the DESERTEC idea. In 2009, the DESERTEC Foundation founded the Munich-based industrial initiative Dii GmbH together with partners from the industrial and finance sectors. Its task is to accelerate the implementation of the DESERTEC Concept in the focus region EU-MENA. The scientific studies done by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) between 2004 and 2007 demonstrated that the desert sun could meet rising power demand in the MENA region while also helping to power Europe, reduce carbon emissions across the EU-MENA region and power desalination plants to provide freshwater to the MENA region. Dii GmbH published a further study called Desert Power 2050 in June 2012. It found that the MENA region would be able to meet its needs for power with renewable energy, while exporting its excess power to create an export industry with an annual volume of more than €60 billion. Meanwhile, by importing desert power, Europe could save around €30/MWh. Technology Concentrated solar power (also called concentrating solar power and CSP) systems use mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area. Electrical power is produced when the concentrated light is converted to heat, which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator. Molten salt can be employed as a thermal energy storage method to retain thermal energy collected by a solar tower or solar trough so that it can be used to generate electricity in bad weather or at night. Since solar fields feed their heat energy into a conventional generation unit with a steam turbine, they can be combined without any problem with fossil fuel hybrid power plants. This hybridization secures energy supply also in unfavourable weather and at night without the need of accelerating costly compensatory plants. A technical challenge is the cooling which is necessary for every heating power system. Dii is therefore reliant either on an adequate water supply, coastal facilities or improved cooling technology. Photovoltaics Dii also considers photovoltaics as a technology suitable for desert power plants. Photovoltaics is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material. Materials presently used for photovoltaics include monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium gallium selenide/sulfide. Driven by advances in technology and increases in manufacturing scale and sophistication, the cost of photovoltaics has declined steadily since the first solar cells were manufactured. To export renewable energy produced in the MENA desert region, a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system is needed. High Voltage DC (HVDC) technology is a proven and economical method of power transmission over very long distances and also a trusted method to connect asynchronous grids or grids of different frequencies. With HVDC energy can also be transported in both directions. For long-distance transmission HVDC suffers lower electrical losses than alternating current (AC) transmission. Because of the higher solar radiation in MENA, the production of energy, even with the included transmissions losses, is still advantageous over the production in South Europe. Also very long distance projects have already been realized with technological cooperation from ABB and Siemens – both shareholders of Dii; namely the 800 kV HVDC Xiangjiaba-Shanghai transmission system, which was commissioned by State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) in June 2010. The HVDC link is the most powerful and longest transmission of its kind to be implemented anywhere in the world; and at the time of commissioning, transmitted 6,400 MW of power over a distance of nearly 2,000 kilometres. This is longer than would be needed to link MENA and Europe. Siemens Energy has equipped the sending converter station Fulong for this link with ten DC converter transformers, including five rated at 800 kV. The second HVDC project which is also for SGCC with cooperation from ABB, is a new HVDC link of 3,000 MW over 920 kilometres from Hulunbeir, in Inner Mongolia, to Shenyang in the province of Liaoning in the North-Eastern part of China in 2010.[66] Another project scheduled for 2014 commissioning – is the construction of an ±800 kV North-East UHVDC link from the North-Eastern and Eastern region of India to the city of Agra across a distance of 1,728 kilometres. Another project of this type is the Rio Madeira HVDC system a HVDC link of 2,375 kilometres (1,476 mi). Arrays of parabolic troughs The Sahara covers huge parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia. It is one of three distinct physiographic provinces of the African massive physiographic division. First solar and wind power projects in North Africa already have started and countries like Morocco set up ambitious plans on the implementation of renewable energy. The Ouarzazate solar power plant in Morocco for example, with the capacity of 500 MW, will be one of the largest concentrated solar plants in the world. In 2011, the DESERTEC Foundation started to evaluate projects that could serve as models for the implementation of DESERTEC according to its sustainability criteria. Transmitting energy over long distances has been criticized, with questions raised over the cost of cabling compared to energy generation, and over electricity losses. However, the study and current operating technology show that electricity losses using high-voltage direct current transmission amount to only 3% per 1,000 km (10% per 3,000 km). Investment may be required within Europe in a supergrid. In response, one proposal is to cascade power between neighbouring states so that states draw on the power generation of neighbouring states rather than from distant desert sites. One key question will be the cultural aspect, as Middle Eastern and African nations may need assurance that they will own the project rather than it being imposed from Europe.
Posted on: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 09:07:26 +0000
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