Oil in a week - Europe Harnesses the Desert’s Sun for Electricity

While there is an increased trend of programmed and frequent power outages in many Arab cities in this hot summer, - mainly because of the augmented use of air-conditioning - an article published in the weekly MEES (Middle East Economic Survey) specialized oil bulletin was striking. The article showcases Desertec, a European project to import electricity from Arab deserts on a massive scale through the harnessing of solar energy. Several companies involved in the project signed the memorandum of understanding in the middle of last July.

In fact, Europe is aiming, through Desertec, to reduce thermal emissions by relying on the solar energy imported from the Arab deserts in particular, in addition to diversifying the continent’s sources of energy in the future through the construction of large solar plants in the deserts south of the Mediterranean Sea. These would ultimately generate about 550 GW of electricity in Europe by 2050, which could meet about 15 percent of the electricity demand in Europe by this mid-century.

The early stages of the project include the construction of solar power plants across the North African Sahara (from Egypt to Mauritania), and the project is planned to expand later on to the deserts of the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, in addition to the construction of around seven transmission lines across the Mediterranean, and one land based transmission line through Turkey. The estimated total cost of the project is about 550 billion dollars. Also, the first plant is expected to be completed near the middle of the next decade.

Specialized companies have meanwhile estimated the financial returns for the Arab countries exporting electricity through this project at about 90 billion dollars annually by 2050.

Meanwhile, a memorandum of understanding was signed for the project about two weeks ago, while the final legal registration of the company, to be established in Germany, will be completed near the end of October. The consortium involved in the project will include around 12 companies and global institutions reputable in the field of energy and financing, such as Siemens, Munich Reinsurance, and Deutsche Bank from Germany. From Switzerland, it includes ABB, in addition to the Spanish Solar Energy Company Abengoa, and the Algerian company Cevital. The door will also be open for other companies to participate after the completion of the formal registration process.

Also according to MEES’s report, Desertec’s calculations estimate that the deserts receive an amount of energy over six hours equivalent to the global energy consumption over a period of one year. It has thus become clear that solar energy will take its due importance among the internationally exploited sources of energy, and with the situation being as such, it is only natural that solar power will soon compete with petroleum energy.

The fact of the matter, however, is that most power plants in the world if not all of them, have stopped using fuel-oil as their furnace fuel. Instead, power plants today rely either on gas, coal or nuclear energy in addition to sustainable alternative and environmentally friendly sources of energy such as solar and wind power, and not on petroleum fuels (except in the antiquated power plants).

In other words, the use of solar energy in power generation will not markedly reduce oil’s share in the market. This is because the primary market for oil today is the transportation sector and not power generation.

Meanwhile, the solar energy market can of course be seen as a new promising market full of new opportunities for the Arab region, and one that will help the Arabs to enter new markets and introduce new industries. This is all thanks to the increased interest in environmental conservation and cost reduction.

It must be emphasized here though, that there are many programs to generate electricity from solar energy already present in several Arab countries, but with a limited scope in terms of exploitability, if compared to the natural potential available in the region. What is thus required in this field, and from the very beginning, is to start harnessing solar energy in the generation of electricity both nationally and regionally. The aim here is not only to cut down the consumption of hydrocarbon liquids, which are currently consumed in power generation instead of being exported, but also to protect the environment in Arab countries, while the use of new technology would ultimately introduce new employment opportunities for Arab workers and technicians. The exploitation of solar energy would also address the debilitating deficit in the region’s electricity generation, which is due to the annual increase in consumption, and is exacerbated by the delay in constructing new power stations that would cover this demand. Also, we hope that this will provide us with the opportunity to establish a solar energy-related industry, in particular because it is not a highly complicated technology.

In any case, the use of solar energy should not rely on wishes. It rather relies on drafting adequate legislation that would for instance mandate the exclusive use of solar energy in new homes in the heating of water. This will in turn motivate the establishment of factories for the production of the necessary equipment for this industry at affordable prices, something that has already been done in Cyprus.

* Mr. Khadduri is an energy expert