blogs.wsj.com
July 28, 2009
Europe's plan to tap the Sahara sun for clean electricity may still be just a notion—but it's an increasingly attractive one for some companies. Spain's Acciona, a big clean-energy player, said yesterday it wants to get into the Desertec Foundation Industrial Initiative, a $500 billion project to put solar- and wind-power plants in North Africa to brings lots of clean energy to Europe. Clean Tech Insight reports: "'We are holding the first talks in order to get on board as soon as possible,' Acciona Chairman Juan Manuel Entrecanales said Monday. 'It's an ambitious project, but possible in the mid- and long-term.'"
Most of the companies in the consortium are German, including Siemens, Munich Re, and RWE. Spain's Abengoa is a founding member of the group. But Acciona's interest is understandable: It has been plowing into concentrated solar energy lately, the centerpiece of the Desertec Foundation idea. On Monday, Acciona unveiled its first concentrated solar project in Spain; it has operated another solar plant in Nevada for two years.
The Sahara's appeal as a possible home for the new solar technology is easy to see: The desert is wide open, and concentrated solar thermal requires lots of space. Acciona's new Spanish plant, for instance, requires 321 acres for a 50 MW plant. In contrast, a 1,000 MW nuclear plant needs about 25 acres. Then there are the costs. concentrated solar energy has an advantage compared to other renewable energies, including wind energy, because the electricity can be stored. But it's not cheap: The World Resources Institute estimates that concentrated solar energy can compete with coal when carbon prices hit $115 a ton—an eight-fold increase over current prices for carbon permits in Europe.
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