Solar power from Sahara for fossil-free Europe

Solar electricity from the Sahara could supply Europe with 15 per cent of its electricity by 2050, at a price tag of 400 billion euros.

Solar power from the North African desert could help Europe to phase out fossil fuel and nuclear power at a lower cost than anything else, and also help North Africa and the Middle East to earn export income without oil, as well as obtaining a large contribution to their own electricity production and a large supply of freshwater from desalinated seawater.

That is the grand vision behind Desertec. a visionary project, backed by ABB, Siemens, and the Club of Rome. ABB´s interest is understandable, as the cost for the high-voltage direct current cables – of which ABB is the world’s leading producer – to Europe is estimated at €50 billion. Other companies behind the Desertec Industrial Initiative are Siemens and the German energy giants Eon and RWE, Deutsche Bank and the insurer’s insurance company Munich Re and other companies.

There is as yet no firm financial commitment to anything, and the scale and timescale of the project has been questioned for very different reasons.

It should not be dismissed too easily, though.

Concentrating thermal solar power (CSP) is a simpler and possibly cheaper technology than its more well-known cousin solar cells.

CSP uses mirrors or lenses to concentrate solar rays, which heat a liquid to high pressure vapour. The vapor drives a turbine and generator, just as in a coal or nuclear power plant, except that the liquid is oil instead of water.

CSP works. It has been tried on a fairly large scale (some 300 megawatts) for more than 20 years in the Californian desert and later also in Spain.

Whereas solar cells or photovoltaics are now much bigger (several thousand megawatts are installed each year) than CSP, some people believe CSP can reach “grid parity” faster i.e. become competitive with other power sources. IIASA^[1] has recently presented a favourable review, in which it claims that with supportive policy CSP could reach parity by 2020, and without policy by 2035. The US Department of Energy^[2] has targeted 2020 for CSP grid parity in baseload and in the intermediate power market by 2015, which is also its target for photovoltaics grid parity.

One advantage of CSP – compared to photovoltaics – is that the heat can be stored, so some power can be produced at night. A drawback is that water is the best coolant, though air-cooling with little water use is an option. And if seawater is used, reasonably near the sea, “a 250 MW collector field may be used to operate a 200 MW turbine and 100,000 m³ of drinking water may be produced a day” according to the Desertec website FAQ^[3].

Area is not a problem. According to a study by the German Aerospace Center DLR, Europe could get 17 per cent of its electricity from 2,500 square kilometres of solar plants out of a total area of 12 million square kilometres in the Middle East and North African nations, much of which is desert.

Costs appear surmountable, though the DLR figures – making the case for Desertec – are open to criticism in some respects.

Wind power, photovoltaics, biomass, energy efficiency, smart grids and possibly wave power may develop faster than CSP and thus erode the economic rationale of the project. It is at least not sure that the cost of photovoltaics will fall slowly from 2020 to 2050 or that all progress on biomass electricity will cease by 2020, or that wind power in Europe will grow to less than 700 TWh by 2030, and then grow very little or that wind power will have a capacity factor of only 20 per cent. But that is what the DLR figures presume.

Social Democratic German MP and long-term solar champion, Hermann Scheer, has criticized Desertec for relying too much on unknown figures, but also for being too long term.

“It is hardly possible to calculate the total cost of this project. There are just too many unknowns,” he told der Spiegel^[4]. He has also claimed that “businesses are trying to delay the required changes in energy production for another 30 or 40 years,” and finally that “Desertec can really only be implemented by a handful of large companies, and it could also allow them to determine the price of electricity.”

This may potentially be a problem, and it is much less of a problem with photovoltaics and wind power where there is more of an in-built competition between manufacturers and where the manufacturer and power producers are usually separate companies.

For the foreseeable future, however, it does not look likely that wind power and photovoltaic developers are being deterred by the prospect of big CSP.

Unlike RWE and Eon, the third German big power company Vattenfall wants no part of Desertec, both for pragmatic reasons and because its outgoing CEO (and Eurelectric CEO) Lars Josefsson is wary of both “European dependence” and danger of terrorist attacks.

That is indeed taking a long-term look, given Europe’s present oil dependence and more near-term dangers from terrorist attacks on existing nuclear power stations.

But with all the confusing arguments for and against Desertec, it should be kept in mind that it does enjoy support not only from what the average NGOs perceive as the bad guys (RWE and Eon), and neutrals (such as ABB) but also from a fair number of clearly good guys such as Munich Re and former MEP Anders Wijkman, now vice president of the Club of Rome, as well as the former UNEP head, Klaus Töpfer. Greenpeace^[5] has also issued a very positive report on CSP.

The grand scale of Desertec, for better or worse, has a strong political appeal. In the confirmation hearings of the incoming European Commission in the European Parliament last January, the Energy Commissioner Oettinger called Desertec a “a great opportunity” for Africa and the EU, and it fits well with EU, especially French, ambitions to forge a strong and constructive alliance around the Mediterranean.

Nuclear power and oil have proven divisive in relations between the north and south Mediterranean. Solar power could be a uniting factor, creating some peaceful prosperity in all directions, maybe not exactly to the tune of 400 billion euro, but then on the other hand maybe a lot faster than 2050.

Fredrik Lundberg

[1] www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/PUB/policy-briefs/pb07.html

[2] www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/csp_program.html

[3] www.desertec.org/en/concept/faq/

[4] www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,664842,00.html

[5] www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/concentrating-solar-power-250509

In this issue

Asian emissions increase ozone over North America

Increases in tropospheric ozone levels above western North America during springtime are due to eastward air flows across the Pacific Ocean, with the largest increases associated with air that comes from South and East Asia, according to a recent study.

Air quality benefits from climate policy

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will help to avert dangerous climate change, but it will also bring other benefits, such as cuts in health-damaging air pollutants, including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide.

Rapid action to abate methane needed

Rapid reductions in emissions of methane and other short-lived greenhouse gases are needed to slow down global warming, especially in the Arctic region.

Ozone pollution could kill millions

Ozone pollution could cause hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of damage to human health and result in millions of premature deaths around the world by 2050.

Solar power from Sahara for fossil-free Europe

Solar electricity from the Sahara could supply Europe with 15 per cent of its electricity by 2050, at a price tag of 400 billion euros.

Supergrid paves the way for wind power expansion

A supergrid connecting Scandinavia and large parts of western Europe may pave the way for an even faster expansion of off-shore windpower.

IMO urged to take action on black carbon emissions

Three countries – Norway, Sweden and the United States – are asking the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to take action to reduce shipping emissions of black carbon (BC).

Copenhagen failure on aviation and shipping

The outcome of the Copenhagen summit proved extremely disappointing as regards international aviation and shipping emissions.

Greenhouse gas reductions will benefit human health

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will have major direct health benefits, especially in low-income countries.

New air quality standards in India

For the first time in 15 years India has revised its air quality standards. The new standards were notified by the environment ministry in November, and have lowered maximum limits for health damaging pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and PM₁₀, and introduced new limits for pollutants left out earlier, including ozone, PM_2.5, arsenic, nickel, benzene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (as benzo(a)pyrene).

Great health benefits from new US air quality standards

New air quality standards announced by the EPA are estimated to yield health benefits in the USA of between 13 and 100 billion dollars.

Parliament debate on IPPC revision

The second reading debate on the proposed revision of the industrial pollution directive (IPPC) is about to take place.

New EU sulphur regulations in ports

From 1 January 2010, ships using ports within the EU are not allowed to use marine fuels with a sulphur content exceeding 0.1% while at berth. Moreover, marine gas oils with a sulphur content higher than 0.1% are not allowed to be marketed in any EU member state.

Review of the VOC paints directive underway

An EU consultancy report published in December recommends extending the 2004 directive on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in paints and varnishes to other products such as hairsprays, solvent-based adhesives, window cleaning products and wood coatings.

Tough stance on air quality derogations

European Commission objects to vast majority of requests for more time to comply with EU air quality legislation.

Air pollution abatement - success and failures

The convention on long range air pollution has helped to clear the skies over Europe and North America over the last three decades - but a few countries are still notorious in failing to fulfil their committments.

Renewable energy can power the world by 2030

Renewable energy sources could produce all the energy the world needs in as little as 20 years from now and at a lower cost than the present energy mix, two American experts claim.

Cutting NOx emissions - the Norwegian way

Through an agreement between the Norwegian government and business organisations, a tax was transformed into a fund for investments - and emissions began to decrease rapidly.

Editorial: Clear the air

Everyone has the right to breathe clean air. In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) released revised guidelines for four outdoor air pollutants: particulate matter (PM), ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. For some pollutants, such as PM, no threshold value for harmful effects could be determined, and WHO therefore decided to set values, which if achieved, would be expected to result in significantly reduced rates of adverse health effects.

Main menu

Solar power from Sahara for fossil-free Europe

In this issue

Asian emissions increase ozone over North America

Air quality benefits from climate policy

Rapid action to abate methane needed

Ozone pollution could kill millions

Solar power from Sahara for fossil-free Europe

Supergrid paves the way for wind power expansion

IMO urged to take action on black carbon emissions

Copenhagen failure on aviation and shipping

Greenhouse gas reductions will benefit human health

New air quality standards in India

Great health benefits from new US air quality standards

Parliament debate on IPPC revision

New EU sulphur regulations in ports

Review of the VOC paints directive underway

Tough stance on air quality derogations

Air pollution abatement - success and failures

Renewable energy can power the world by 2030

Cutting NOx emissions - the Norwegian way

Editorial: Clear the air

Publications

Food for Thought

Northern forests, climate change and the UNFCCC

EU climate targets aligned with the Paris agreement’s 1.5°C objective

Baltic Sea Offshore Wind Collaborative-Learning project

Air pollution in Europe and children’s health

Climate Change: A Himalayan Odessey

No further discussion needed. The agreed global goal is to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C

Fossil-free electricity 2021

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