African sun could power Europe
You know, it's really nice to read environmental news that doesn't make me want to barricade myself in the basement with a baseball bat and 100 cases of mini-ravioli. In an encouraging story about green power, the European Union is considering a $10 billion plan that would see a string of solar power stations in North Africa and the Middle East deliver electricity to Europe via undersea cables.
The proposal, being spearheaded by Jordanian Prince Hassan Bin Talal, would place hundreds of solar collecting stations in desert areas along the Mediterranean coast, and could eventually provide up to a sixth of European power needs.
The idea is a real win-win -- a vast new renewable power source would be opened up, desert areas that are unsuitable for agriculture would become newly valuable, and the project would be a source of jobs and income for impoverished areas of North Africa. As a bonus, under the current plan the generation process would also produce desalinated sea water for the booming populations of the host nations.
The downside -- why is there always a downside? -- is cost. It's estimated that after the initial $10 billion to get the ball rolling, the price tag for the whole deal could approach half a trillion dollars. Moreover, the power generated would still be more expensive than electricity from fossil fuels, although proponents say that advances in solar technologies will bring costs down. Still, if this or a similar project doesn't happen now, in 30 years or so energy shortages may make it impossibly expensive to build.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-05-2007 @ 7:02PM
Tom Buckner said...
Half a trillion dollars? That's SOOOOOO MUCH MONEY! What else could you do with half a trillion dollars?
Oh, yeah. The Iraq War.
Half a trillion in solar power is the deal of the century.
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12-05-2007 @ 7:59PM
Ferretman said...
Actually it is a pretty good investment (leaving aside the previous poster's political issues). The EU certainly has the money, it'll improve the areas along the southern Med, and help avoid a coming energy crisis that will hit the entire EU if they don't do SOMETHING.
The only big problem I can see is putting such a large percentage of your energy under (essentially) foreign control. There are no problems now, but should (say) Libya and the EU get crosswise with each other they could shut off the power pretty easily. Much as with the US and its foolish importing of 60% of its oil, it's not a good idea to hand over too much of your energy sources to external powers.
All in all though, a very good idea.
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12-06-2007 @ 9:06AM
kyle said...
@ferretman - hate to say it, but the us importing oil is one of the smartest things they do. much of us domestic energy is untapped right now. when a global energy crisis does occur, those bastards can just tap their own (much of which is) undepleted resource base.
12-06-2007 @ 9:42AM
Ferretman said...
Hmmm.....an interesting point. I've heard the theory advanced before but I'm (frankly) a but surprised to see it on a green forum.
To some extent I agree with you, Kyle--there's some advantage to using other sources while keeping our own as a backup. The biggest problem with that is the spin-up time--it takes at least two years to build a refinery, for example, so if the oil barons cut us off right now for some reason we'd have a huge economic crisis for several years before we could get our own internal production going. (On the THIRD hand, of course, there wouldn't be any substantive arguments any more from folks who don't want that.)
Good point though, very much.
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12-06-2007 @ 5:28PM
David said...
Half a trillion is nothing. It might currently be more expensive than fossil fuel power but solar comes with fewer environmental impacts from a virtually infinite source. It sounds like a great idea in theory. But.... what happens after the EU becomes dependant on this supply of energy and the host nation decides to get pissy about something and covers the PV collectors or stops the flow of energy northward? Doesn't sound very different from what goes on currently with OPEC or Chavez in Venezuela. Perhaps we should all focus on what types of energy we can create in our own yards, gardens and garages.
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12-30-2007 @ 12:07PM
R guy said...
Wouldn't it be nice if this article also discussed how sunlight harvested *from* Africa could be used to power *Africa*? Just a thought...
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