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Solar Mediterranean Union: the Way to Energy and Climate Security?
The proposal for a Union for the Mediterranean is a great opportunity to develop the vast solar energy resources of the Sahara and the Arabian Peninsula for the whole of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa (EUMENA). So says the 'TREC' international network of scientists and engineers and the Club of Rome.
Solar radiation in deserts is by far the largest source of energy on earth: abundant, inexhaustible, clean, and accessible around the globe. A Solar Mediterranean Union could bring deserts of MENA and technology from Europe together: a perfect match for sustainability.
"Less than 0.2% of the deserts of the Sahara and the Arabian Peninsula would be sufficient to generating 50% of EUMENA's electricity requirements" says Dr. Gerhard Knies, coordinator of the TREC network. All the necessary technologies are already in existence. This would be an ideal project for the planned Union for the Mediterranean."
To get things moving as quickly as is called for in recent IPCC reports, TREC has proposed that the emerging Union for the Mediterranean should run two EUMENA-wide expert workshops to develop two projects:
A vigorous programme to roll out Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants in desert regions on a large scale.
The design and installation of a high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission grid interconnecting Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
The German Aerospace Center has investigated this DESERTEC concept in great detail for the German government. Their studies show that solar power and wind power in MENA deserts can provide low-cost, no-carbon, reliable and long-term secure power to the MENA region itself, and also to Europe. Clean power from deserts can be sent economically via highly-efficient HVDC transmission lines as far north as to the United Kingdom, Denmark and Poland. A combination of clean power from deserts with European wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, wave and other renewable sources can meet, with only marginal fossil back-ups, all of the power needs of EUMENA, without technical risks and without fuel supply problems.
All the necessary technologies such as CSP plants, heat storage for solar power generation at night, wind turbines, and HVDC cables, are commercially available and ready for deployment. The costs of CSP technologies are already much lower than photovoltaics and will soon come down further as a result of their large-scale deployment to below fossil fuel costs. Sun-belt countries could develop an industry for CSP collectors.
"Such a win-win cooperation between the European Union and its southern and eastern Mediterranean neighbours is reminiscent of the Union for Coal and Steel in Europe founded some 60 years ago, which led Europe into a prosperous and peaceful future", says Prince Hassan bin Talal from Jordan, former President of The Club of Rome.
A White Paper, "The DESERTEC Concept: Clean Power from Deserts for Energy, Water and Climate Security" has been presented to the European Parliament and to the European-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly. The White Paper and a multilingual summary can be downloaded from www.DESERTEC.org
judythpiazza@newsblaze.com
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