The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
Desert solar project could power 5 million EU homes, feed thirty-seven families of 18 in Tunis, maybe.
[Sheik] Kevin Sara claimed that an initial 250MW could be up and running, powering Europe via an interconnector with Malta, by 2020. It would mean an extra 1,000GWh of clean power a year being made available to the European grid. [...] Italy and Malta's energy grids are already connected via a 95km link that came online in 2015....The second stage of the plan is to construct Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) towers with a capacity of 2.25GW, which would be connected to Italy, just south of Rome, via another cable that would deliver 9,000GWh per year. [...] Although both DESERTEC and now TuNur have faced criticism and accusations of "colonisation", the project insists that its planned facility will help prevent desertification and minimise water consumption. An impact study also predicts that 2,000 direct jobs and 20,000 indirect jobs could be created.
Spain was building large thermal solar. Austerity killed the industry.
If they were to put the entire array on stilts (eg melted sand poles) then you owold get much lower evaporation from soil and agriculture would benefit.
Have solar powered (direct or not) fresh water and you could pump that inland. Keep building that infrastructure and over time it could be significant.
And if they gave over say 10% of land to coppice trees whose produce were to be sunk in deep water, they cold begin to offset carbon (a bit).
All round fabulous idea. keep to the Fen Causeway
I haven't looked it up lately. But I did read this. UN projects world population to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, driven by growth in developing countries
Moreover, the report reveals that during the 2015-2050 period, half of the world's population growth is expected to be concentrated in nine countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the United States, Indonesia and Uganda. [...] During this period, the report said, the populations of 28 African countries are projected to more than double, and by 2100, 10 African countries are projected to have increased by at least a factor of five: Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia.
Let's hope these people won't ever "need" iPhones, server farms, smart homes, Sub Zero refrigeration, public water & sewage systems, or EVs. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
And so in the late twentieth century the imperial cycle of the last century in some way replicates itself, although today there are really no big empty spaces, no expanding frontiers, no exciting new settlements to establish.
Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the "colonial trinity" (trinité coloniale) of state, missionary and private company interests.[7] The privileging of Belgian commercial interests meant that large amounts of capital flowed into the Congo and that individual regions became specialised.
Best idea since Jesus on a stick with wheels. Even "communist"[!] CHINA is at it! o, no. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
I suspect you're passing some comment on the ownership structure - which yes, much better this was locally owned - but it could be something else.
eurotrib comment history
Furthermore, I posted links identifying its "Main Shareholders" (quoted from the sources) as well as historical reference to trinité coloniale, or "ownership structure," on which expected returns from DESERTEC investment evidently rely. And every eurotrib subscriber should by now be familiar with common practices in P-P financing of renewable NRG infrastructures (except the preposterous claim "prevent desertification" of the Sahara).
I gather, that benefit claim passed you by.
With this information, I conclude as I did nearly 10 years ago: DESERTEC is another ill-conceived, morally bankrupt, and cynical predation proposal. Defense of purported interests in it for "North African" hosts [!] by some commenters here was predictable. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
'Twould be a shame that Gadaffi is dead but for his ebil, dictatorial, and klepto-maniacal scheme to compete with the crazy IMF/World Bank.
African Monetary Union (UMA) Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Have you a recent example? Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
How is importing sustainably produced electricity worse that importing oil or gas to provide for Europe's energy needs? And the Sahara has far more solar power potential than its sparsely distributed population could ever need.
There are several assumptions, possibilities or "potentials," expressed by these statements, but catalytic conversion of (sun)light into transmmitable electricity is not one of them. The purpose of DESERTEC construction is to collect and transmit electricity. The proposed construction site(s) is not co-located with end-users, because Europeans have less electricity than they need or live in darkness.
Or do they?
A show of sophistry by a person of your age is unbecoming. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Am I to understand then, northern hemisphere grids (EU, Germany specifically) which are too far from the equator to exploit "local solar irradiance", ought to define investment in and feasibility of decentralized PV installation, generation, and transmission everywhere else on the planet?
How catholic. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Technically the biggest limitation is power transport. Else the equator would be ringed with solar power installations.
Morocco is currently of interest because of its proximity to Spain and the European grid.
Not being a member, I'm ignorant about Club of Rome networking activities in Morocco. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
I do believe that African countries should build their own PV installations for their own people and their neighbors with what ever money can be pried from the hands of their own elites.
Have you any recent examples to support this belief? Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Note, however, that production tends to peak around midday which might limit power availability at other times. Ideally an east west middle eastern and north African grid spanning form Saudi to Morocco would provide power throughout most of European daylight (and peak demand) hours. In the longer term, a global grid extending all the way to Mexico could provide power throughout northern hemisphere daily demand cycles and valuable revenue and employment for more southern countries. (In return, northern installations could provide wind power for more southern countries at night or in winter). Index of Frank's Diaries
"Main Shareholders" Nur Energie: UK hedge fund Armonia LLC: US hedge fund Low Carbon: UK hedge fund Zammit Group: a Maltese mafia Cluster energie tunisie: crude, gas, agro, mining, electricity FTA tenders (by currency value)
Main "Stakeholders" République Tunisienne Ministère de l'Industrie? Not so much
Let's recap: sparsely populated, R2P-shorn, unemployed beneficiaries of DESERTEC seek high-stake ROI from inverted FDI (formerly known as tax evasion, off-shore tax shelters). Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
What constitutes a "mafia"? The term was first applied to Sicily's Cosa and also to a criminal organization in the United States. In Italy it is also widely used to refer to the Camorra in Campania, and the `Ndraghetta in Calabria. Article 416 of the Italian Criminal Code states "an organisation is of a mafia-type when those participating in it take advantage of the organisation's power of intimidation and of the resulting conditions of submission and omertà (culture of silence) in order to commit criminal offences..." By this definition, is there a [Maltese] mafia?
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 26 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 22 3 comments
by Cat - Jan 25 23 comments
by Oui - Jan 9 21 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 13 28 comments
by gmoke - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 15 90 comments
by gmoke - Jan 7 13 comments
by gmoke - Jan 29
by Oui - Jan 2729 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 263 comments
by Cat - Jan 2523 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 223 comments
by Oui - Jan 2110 comments
by Oui - Jan 21
by Oui - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 1839 comments
by Oui - Jan 1590 comments
by Oui - Jan 144 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 1328 comments
by Oui - Jan 1215 comments
by Oui - Jan 1120 comments
by Oui - Jan 1031 comments
by Oui - Jan 921 comments
by NBBooks - Jan 810 comments
by Oui - Jan 717 comments
by gmoke - Jan 713 comments