Though this story has been in the pipeline for a while now, I shied away from covering it due to the fact it seemed overly conceptual and not very likely to ever get off the ground. It seems I may be wrong as there are now serious talks and planning going on to make Europe one of the world leaders in solar electricity production.
Tea In The Sahara
For months now there has been talk amongst several European energy companies about the possibility of constructing enormous solar farms in the African Sahara Desert and parts of the Middle East. This ‘talk’ has now moved from the abstract to the somewhat more specific. It was just announced that twelve European companies, ABB, Siemens, E.ON, RWE, Deutsche Bank, and Munich Re to name a few, have launched a 400-billion-euro (560 billion USD) initiative to set up huge solar farms in Africa and the Middle East to produce energy for Europe. The initiative, known as The Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII), will build solar farms and solar-power generators in North Africa and the Middle East to send huge amounts of electricity to Europe and will have three years to elaborate investment plans to create the network of solar farms.
Just how much energy are these projects estimated to provide? Officials estimate enough to serve 15% of Europe’s energy needs. One Siemens representative said the plants could produce over 100 gigawatts of power; the equivalent of 100 conventional power plants. Plans are now underway to get electricity flowing to European customers by 2020.
Deserts Powering Europe A Mirage?
Though on the surface this plan sounds all well and good (lots of desert sun + lots of solar = lots of power), as is the case with many renewable energies, the devil is in the details. First of all, there is a massive distance to cover to get power from Africa and the Middle East to Europe. It will require thousands of miles of robust transmission lines, as well as numerous substations, to get the electricity produced in the desert into the homes of millions of Europeans. This will not only pose huge financial and logistical hurdles (seeing as the lines will cross several sovereign countries’ territories), but could pose security risks as well. Like oil pipelines, transmission cables and stations are easy prey for saboteurs. Securing these entirely will be impossible.
There is also the issue of equipment failure and maintenance. Unlike many of the deserts in the American Southwest that are home to solar power production facilities, the Sahara and the deserts of the Middle East are much more prone to strong, and often damaging, sand storms. Much of the solar equipment used today for utility applications is not rugged enough to withstand such an environment.
The Good: A huge initiative to get a huge project off the ground is underway. Projected outputs of the proposed plants would supply up to 15% of Europe’s energy needs.
The Bad: The realization of this project depends on working out solutions for a multitude of complex and difficult economical, logistical, and political problems.
The Bottom-Line: Though at present the it may seem to still be slightly ‘pie in the sky’, the size and scope of the Desertec project is ambitous to say the least and if it works, could provide millions in Europe with renewable energy.
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