Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Published online 27 November 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/450595a
News
Europe looks to draw power from Africa
Sahara Desert could become home to solar-power plants.
The power needs of Europe, the Middle Eastand North Africa could be met by an ambitious idea to network renewable energies across the region. The cornerstone of the plan, developed by a group of scientists, economists and businessmen,involves peppering the Sahara Desert with solar thermal power plants, then transmitting the electricity through massive grids.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email webadmin@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.
To the editors: In the future, please do NOT refer the reader to a link buried in the article for the larger version. That link should always be in the caption for the illustration as well as in the article where appropriate. Please remember that there is no law against referencing the same web page from multiple places in another web page.
An old plan I developed years ago. Electricity does not seem the way. Better seems to be using compressors to build compression in a kind of barrel. Let us go from ten thousand to a million bar A valve system will release the pressure as needed. These barrels can be stored, can have different dimensions and can be transported. They have been tried already by Citroën cars. It must be possible to sail a super tanker from Amsterdam to New York on one barrel. Explosions will be clean and always caused by a manufactory fault. Maarten
The proposed grid to connect Europe with Africa is just part of a series of global interconnections which Fred Pearce called the "electric hypergrid" in a New Scientist article several years ago. This is a new "world wide web" emerging right before our eyes. It is a global energy network and, like the internet, it will change our culture, society and how we do business. More importantly, it will alter how we use, transform and exchange energy. For more information, see http://www.terrawatts.com
An exciting vision. One fascinating aspect for me is the political question. Take for instance Western Sahara on the Atlantic coast. How would you put all of the proposed solar and wind installations in place in a region that is still in dispute?
Not to spoil the party but, has anyone given any thought to the challenge of keeping the plants operational in the extreely harsh desert environment? How long will mirrors last under the frequent sandblasting of storms? Just curious.
This is a great idea, but it is curious how the sub-sahara Africa is being kept completely out of this initiative. I cannot imagine what logical explanation might be there that would justify its exclusion. The solar energy is not limited, is it?
Looked at purely from a scientific and energy-provision perspective, the idea is great. However, the geopolitical and historical perspectives between Africa and Europe bring to the fore controversies and questions. The way the project is currently designed it appears to be for only Europe and the Middle East. The following questions are pertinent: 1.To what extent is Africa as a continent at large, going to benefit in this energy generation? 2.What about the property Rights over the Sahara Desert where the solar plants will be built, given this is African soil? 3.How would the power benefit Africans other than Algeria, Egypt and Morocco, all of who happen to be “Arab� countries? The power generated should benefit Africans. 4.What about the surrounding African countries? 5.What can be done to share this glory both in Europe, Middle East & Africa? 6.Have the historical realities of Europe unfairly benefiting from Africa’s resources with Africa perpetually remaining a beggar been fully factored in the bigger picture? As it currently stands, the projects looks nothing more than the continued exploitation of Africa and her natural resources for the benefit of Europeans and, in this case also, the Middle East. Any project to build solar plants in the Sahara Desert must benefit Africans otherwise this project is just a 21st century version of the exploitation of African resources for the benefit of Europeans. E. Kibuka
It is startling to look at the map of the planned solar grid and note that there is no plan for sub-saharan Africa. Not only does this reek of further exploitation of the African continent it lacks any forward thinking in terms of the impact development in sub-saharan Africa will eventually have on the global climate. Would it not be better to make sustainable energy available now than to see another China on the horizon having massive energy needs met by coal or other non-sustainable means?
DESERTEC : a great concept. About Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) costs : 1 ) Google today announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE
who will be coordinating between countries which are still fighting for ownership of land and resources my humble curiosity Jayesh menon