Solar power plants proposed for Sahara
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Chris Bryant and Ed Crooks
A dozen companies are set to launch a renewable energy initiative that its backers claim could within a decade provide Europeans with electricity generated from the Sahara - at a cost of (euro 400bn ($557bn).
Munich Re, the German insurer, Deutsche Bank, utilities RWE and Eon and industrial conglomerate Siemens are among the bluechip names that will form a company to explore the technical and geopolitical challenges of peppering the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East with solar mirrors.
By joining together hundreds of solar thermal power plants and wind farms with high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission cables under the Mediterranean sea, the founders of the Desertec Industrial Initiative hope one day to supply 15 per cent of Europe's electricity needs.
Concentrating solar power plants use the sun's heat to generate electricity. Hundreds of mirrors focus the sun's rays on to a receiver containing a heat transfer fluid, such as oil.
This heat energy is used to produce steam that drives a turbine, much like in a traditional power station. Unlike photovoltaic solar cells, CSP plants are able to generate electricity at night or on cloudy days, by storing the heat they produce.
The Desertec project, compared by Wulf Bernotat, chief executive of Eon, with the challenge of putting a man on the moon, would require the creation of a C45bn electricity super-grid covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
A study by the German Aerospace Centre estimated the total cost of the project at euro 3951m. Although feted in Germany, Desertec is not without its detractors, who see it is an expensive flight of fancy, first cooked up by ardent professors and political idealists, and now embraced by corporate spin.
The idea has won an army of powerful supporters, including Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, who laud its potential to cut greenhouse gases.
On a recent visit to the UK to talk about Eon's investments in low-carbon energy, which are principally in wind power, Frank Mastiaux, chief executive of iEon's climate and renewables division, warned that the time horizon of such projects was "very long".
FT Syndication Service
A dozen companies are set to launch a renewable energy initiative that its backers claim could within a decade provide Europeans with electricity generated from the Sahara - at a cost of (euro 400bn ($557bn).
Munich Re, the German insurer, Deutsche Bank, utilities RWE and Eon and industrial conglomerate Siemens are among the bluechip names that will form a company to explore the technical and geopolitical challenges of peppering the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East with solar mirrors.
By joining together hundreds of solar thermal power plants and wind farms with high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission cables under the Mediterranean sea, the founders of the Desertec Industrial Initiative hope one day to supply 15 per cent of Europe's electricity needs.
Concentrating solar power plants use the sun's heat to generate electricity. Hundreds of mirrors focus the sun's rays on to a receiver containing a heat transfer fluid, such as oil.
This heat energy is used to produce steam that drives a turbine, much like in a traditional power station. Unlike photovoltaic solar cells, CSP plants are able to generate electricity at night or on cloudy days, by storing the heat they produce.
The Desertec project, compared by Wulf Bernotat, chief executive of Eon, with the challenge of putting a man on the moon, would require the creation of a C45bn electricity super-grid covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
A study by the German Aerospace Centre estimated the total cost of the project at euro 3951m. Although feted in Germany, Desertec is not without its detractors, who see it is an expensive flight of fancy, first cooked up by ardent professors and political idealists, and now embraced by corporate spin.
The idea has won an army of powerful supporters, including Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, who laud its potential to cut greenhouse gases.
On a recent visit to the UK to talk about Eon's investments in low-carbon energy, which are principally in wind power, Frank Mastiaux, chief executive of iEon's climate and renewables division, warned that the time horizon of such projects was "very long".
FT Syndication Service