Here’s a fascinating piece from Saudi Gazette. It reports on efforts to create an energy grid that encompasses Europe and much of the Middle East, from North Africa to the Gulf. This region, in addition to the various oil fields, is also an area that receives intense solar radiation. That radiation can be captured and converted into power; that power can be transmitted to other areas. The article notes that 0.4% of the radiation falling on the area would meet all of Europe’s energy demands.
The article reports that the Saudis are very interested in this proposal. Definitely worth reading!
Kingdom positioned to become solar power
RIYADH – In the wake of the first Gulf War, the US Army assessed Saudi Arabia’s solar energy resource potential in a classified effort to determine how oil fires had affected the region.
The results were clear and surprising. In addition to being a vast petroleum repository, the Kingdom was also the heart of the most potentially productive region on the planet for harvesting power from the sunSitting in the center of the so-called Sun Belt, the Kingdom is part of a vast, rainless region reaching from the western edge of North Africa to the eastern edge of Central Asia that boasts the best solar energy resources on Earth. With the cost of oil skyrocketing, this belt is attracting the attention of a growing number of European leaders, who are embracing an ambitious proposal to harvest this solar energy for their nations.
The developed world again turns to the less developed countries in hopes of powering their economies.
The Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation, or TREC, is the brainchild of a consortium led by the controversial Club of Rome and includes influential members like the German Aerospace Bureau and several universities in Europe and the Middle East.
TREC is spearheading an initiative to build a so-called transmission supergrid by concentrating solar thermal power plants, wind turbines and long distance power lines to supply energy to Europe.
The proposed power plants would simultaneously provide energy to seawater desalination plants in the Middle East and North Africa.
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August:30:2008 - 11:43
ya know? Western countries played a large role in the development and the extraction of first major resource (oil) found in the KSA. I think this resource (solar) should be extracted by the Saudis themselves. That way, we have none of the political and strategic after effects.
I say, let the Saudis develop ways to convert solar to electricity and market it to the region. Think of what a source of pride it would be for them.
August:30:2008 - 11:43
I never understood why when living under the constant blazing sun, one wouldn’t use solar power for everything.
the only thing you need to do is dust the solar panels.
Handy for all the desalinisation too. why use oil if you can sell it and you have another energy source blazing away above you?
Eeeh, western countries have also already been doing a lot of research on solar power too.
August:30:2008 - 11:43
What about scalar energy…It is free! Also, hopefully the use of solar power will somehow reduce the amount of solar energy heating up Saudi Arabia. That would be nice because it is hot as hell there
August:30:2008 - 11:43
I remember driving out of Riyadh into the boondocks over ten years ago and coming across an experimental solar “village”. Obviously nothing came of it up until now, perhaps.
August:30:2008 - 11:43
I don’t know… the Saudis have been doing experiments with solar power since at least the early 1980s. But the thing is, they are experiments, not proven technology. It seems to me that there’s a lot of experimentation going on, but not so much actually working sufficiently to hit the market successfully.
Even tried-and-true solar technology doesn’t always work as advertised in the KSA, probably due to the intense level of solar energy beating down.
The US Embassy, for instance, installed solar heating panels for all of the houses it built for its staff in Riyadh. Makes sense, no? There were also small heaters for use in the winter, when Riyadh can get cloudy and cold.
But the sun is so hot that the water heated by the solar panels is scalding hot, dangerously so. In Saudi summers, the cold water tap provides water that is itself hotter than most people prefer. And, since it’s the cold water tap, what are you going to use to cut the heat?
It’s perverse, perhaps, but the solution was to turn off the solar water heater in summer and, extremely energy-inefficiently, let the house A/C cool water in the electric heater tank. You ended up using the hot water tap to make the water from the cold water tap cooler.
It’s not for nothing that ‘Land of Paradoxes’ is one of the sobriquets applied to the Kingdom!
August:30:2008 - 11:43
There is a new world wide web emerging right before our eyes.
It is a global energy network and, like the internet, it will change our culture, society and how we do business. More importantly, it will alter how we use, transform and exchange energy.
Enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world’s energy needs for a full year.
There is no energy supply problem, there is an energy distribution problem — and the emerging solution is a new world wide web of electricity.
For more information see http://www.terrawatts.com
August:30:2008 - 11:43
a win/win situation here. everyone benefits from it. so let’s see it happen