In 1986, a power surge during a safety check at the Chernobyl reactor caused a catastrophic explosion. Thirty-one people died on the spot, even more died due to the effects of the release. Along with the 2011 Fukushima accident, this is one of the two worst nuclear incidents with a maximum severity level of 7. Support for nuclear power has plummeted around the world precisely because of these events.
But Gerhard Nies, a particle physicist from Germany, decided to ask a simple question. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas have come a long way to become our energy source, and owe part of their energy supply to the sun. Plants and animals buried underground have been turned into this fossil fuel for thousands of years. The radioactive uranium that powers nuclear power plants has also become a byproduct of nuclear fusion in stars. Wouldn't it be cheaper, easier and cleaner to get energy from the sun directly?
Nys did a simple calculation and found that in six hours the world's deserts receive more solar energy than the entire human race consumes in a year. The world's energy needs can be met by covering only 1.2% of the Sahara desert with solar panels. Nys probably didn't even think about carbon emissions - because one day fossil fuels will run out one day - but climate change is fueling motivation for such a project. And, of course, it all looks extremely simple: Nis himself was amazed, they say, are we really so stupid as a species that we still haven't come to this?
Granted, it is difficult to convince people to invest in such a grand and ambitious scheme - and one that requires a colossal investment that does not promise any significant profit - but the Desertec initiative was a real attempt to demonstrate that the concept worked.
The plan was to locate solar panels in the Sahara, which will provide most of the capacity in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as provide $ 60 billion in energy exports that will meet 15% of Europe's electricity needs. Meanwhile, Europeans - by importing desert energy - could save up to € 30 per MWh on their electricity bills. Everyone will win in the end.
The Desertec project started in 2009 and soon acquired a number of industry partners including EON, Deutsche Bank and Siemens. Their investment was necessary, since the project was estimated at 400 billion euros - although after a few years of work it would have already paid for itself. However, the project stalled, and by 2014, of the seventeen original industry partners, only three remained.
What happened to Desertec? This is due to two sets of factors. First, these are the problems that have plagued the transition to renewable energy sources for many years. Second, there are the unique geopolitical and logistical challenges of solar panels in the Sahara. Both are noteworthy.
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Closing gaps
The first is the general issue of renewable energy. Desertec's plan called for a centralized power station that would distribute electricity to three continents, and transporting that electricity over such long distances could be a problem.
The plan was to use high-voltage DC transmission lines instead of the AC lines we are used to. Over long distances, energy loss can be as low as 3% per 1000 kilometers, which is much less than in the case of alternating current. But nothing on such a scale had ever been built before; the largest chain is in Brazil, the Rio-Madeira line, transmitting 6.3 GW over 2,400 kilometers. For Desertec to be successful, 30 GW of power needs to be transmitted from the Sahara to Europe over a distance of over 3,000 kilometers. And yet, this may well be real amid news that in July 2016 China began funding a high-voltage DC transmission line that will carry 12 GW over 3,000 kilometers.
And it's not just about power transmission. What to do when the sun is not in the sky? And this is a serious problem for renewable energy sources.
Energy storage may be part of the solution, but not yet sufficiently developed. The global storage facility is currently dominated by pumped hydroelectricity. This simple technique accounts for 99% of the world's storage, but with a global storage of 127 GW, that's still less than 1% of the world's capacity. Energy industry researchers talk about a hypothetical “European supergrid” that will allow power to be transferred from regions of excess production to regions of excess consumption. The same is happening within countries to ensure a constant supply of electricity, but this is largely due to the fact that energy production from fossil fuels can be increased or decreased.
And there are precedents for such a system: France and the UK are connected by a 2 GW transmission line. High voltage direct current allows energy to be transferred in both directions, depending on demand; usually the British import French electricity, but not always. Norway's fjords generate 98% of its electricity from hydroelectric power plants; Danish winds allow producing 50% of its own electricity from renewable energy sources; cables running through Scandinavia ensure that everyone can get energy if the wind blows or the sun shines. Research has shown that an area of the Mediterranean with an energy source like Desertec can supply 80% of its energy needs with solar power alone, without worrying about interruptions.
Expect the unexpected
While people were considering a project that could focus the world's energy supply in Libya and Algeria, more specific problems arose - the civil war in Libya and political instability in the Sahara. Add to this the fact that the project was planned to be completed only by 2050, and industrial partners would have to be convinced with only promises of short-term benefits.
There is also a more subtle political issue of natural resource rights.
As with many bold, futuristic projects, a little government intervention can thwart a project like Desertec. Countries have enriched themselves by exporting oil or coal; could sunlight one day play a similar role? At first glance, this is another bonus in the Desertec scheme; poor African countries would be extremely valuable by exporting energy to the world while providing for their own needs. But in practice, another imperialist exploitation will begin. This is just a new form of resource exploitation, and history remembers a lot of sad stories on this topic.
There is another reason for the stoppage of Desertec development.
The project supported concentrated solar energy, in which parabolic mirrors concentrated sunlight, which boiled water that powered wind turbines. This technology allowed Siemens to be involved in the project. The problem is that when Desertec began to grow, the price of solar panels began to plummet. From 2009 to 2014, the cost of photovoltaic cells fell 78% and continues to fall. In just five years, photovoltaic cells became five times cheaper. Therefore Siemens left the project.
Desertec continues to live in small forms; construction of power plants continues in Morocco to meet local energy demand in the country. Perhaps it is worth starting with this: to increase its own production in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa. After all, this is not the first or the last project that promised to provide the world with unlimited energy and which has reached a dead end; historians remember Atlantropa, a plan to dam up the Strait of Gibraltar and use it for hydropower, which was of great interest in the 1920s.
Yet the prospect remains far too tempting. Solar power, which could be harvested from the world's deserts, is just one of the few possible ways to harness renewable energy sources to meet human needs on a large scale. One day we will be much more effective in using what the sun gives us. We will have to.
Ilya Khel