Can Sahara desert illuminate European ? That was the title chosen by Duncan Graham-Rowe, a contributor to The Economist and The Guardian published by two British media, about solar power plant project in the Sahara desert, the African continent, named by Desertec Industrial Initiative undertaken by European energy contactors of Siemens and Eon.
Graham-Rowe interviewed some practitioners to answer two fundamental questions: Can the energy be sold cheap and is it available throughout the day at night though?
The answer could be, the explanation is below.
On the whole surface of the earth on display for sunlight termed by sunbelts, mainly the equator, the sun is the energy wasted from sunrise to sunset.
Europeans are once again capturing the potential to revive the discourse of solar energy from the grave. Spike in oil prices of about U.S. $ 15 per barrel to $ 40 per barrel in the mid-1970s until the early 80s never gave to the idea, as panic-country without oil resources.
But after oil prices gradually fell, discourse was signed in the trash because they are still more expensive than hydrocarbons and oil producers fear, at least for the world market. Because in fact the concept was used by developed countries to operate the space station as well as their satellites.
Now when the price rises from the range of 60 to 140 dollars per barrel, the project was back on.
Keith Bowen, Director of Design of Circadian Solar (UK) said that solar energy has two advantages, efficiencies and economies of scale. "Twenty years ago the conversion efficiency of solar energy into electricity is only 15-20 percent compared to fossil energy from the sun but efficiency increased to 40 percent now."
Then "The scale is also economically very good." The greater the solar power is getting cheaper cost of production. "
Other limitations of solar energy is the sun shining all day, even though the same limitations are owned by the generating wind, but those have ever been already for hundreds of years used in the Netherlands.
But the Desertec project has solution. According to Bowen with the concept of solar power plants planned for the more advanced in the Sahara, solar thermal energy can be stored in water. By heating the water to hundreds of degrees Celsius over the sun shining, steam can be used throughout the night to turn the turbines that would generate electricity.
Then what are you waiting?
It is still a matter of price, coordinator for the British Desertec Gerry Wolff said the price of solar electricity generated by the project will range from US10 - 20 cents compared with a gas which it is still US5 cents per kilowatt hour. Therefore investment to the field is somewhat sluggish.
But Wolff said that based on three studies of the German aerospace industry, the cost will be gradually decreased to become the cheapest energy sources in Europe in 2017, when energy begins to be used in bulk, such as cellular communication tariffs.
In a tropical country, complaint occurs when the light is too hot and a lot of energy trying to muffle it with another energy. Wasted electricity for air conditioning while some workers still use a suit. Some already use it for heating water, partly to preserve fish, but actually there are many other benefits from the sun.
