Welcome ! As a young French Marketing professional with a Master's in International Management I have been selecting since January 2007 the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change, cleantech and the world energy sector. Sounds great ? Don't hesitate to subscribe now !
Remember the Desertec project and how I was convinced ? Their goal is to build solar, wind and other renewable energies facilities to power North Africa, the Middle East and part of Europe.
Well, I am not the only one as their first plant will start construction next year. With a capacity of 500 MW it will cost 2.8 billion USD, or 2 billion euros. The first phase will bring 150 MW and will take two to four years to build.
500 megawatts don’t seem much really compared to the hundreds of gigawatts that are planned and needed, but you have to start somewhere. (via Ecogeek)
To Business Week : ” Sun-drenched Kuwait, a desert nation with no solar-power plants and electricity demand that’s growing about 8 percent a year, has set the most ambitious target for using renewable energy in the Gulf region.”
The country plans to have ten percent of renewables in its electricity mix by 2020. This exceeds by three points the goals of Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates. This is a huge goal as the local energy demand doubled in ten years.
Fully understanding that they won’t be able to rely on oil indefinitely, many Middle East countries are diversifying their economies and energy supplies.
We saw that oil prices are now back above $100 a barrel. Most unfortunately, food prices are also increasing, and this is a problem for the poorest populations of the globe, and this includes Egypt, the world biggest wheat importer.
As the leading blog Climate Progress noted recently : ” Leading experts, reported in the media, have made the case that high food prices are one of the triggers of MidEast unrest. “
Among the causes are the increased demand – Mankind will comprise seven billion people by year end – rising oil prices and climate change as it damages or decreases the harvests…
Will fighting climate change become the ultimate fight ? If the Palestinian Authority and Israel can sit at the same table to fight climate change I guess we can save ourselves from warming temperatures. To the AFP:
” Some 15 Mediterranean countries, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority, agreed Friday to work together to combat the effects of climate change that threaten the region. “
Participants are willing to fight desertification and improve energy and water access. The full article is a wealth of information, so be sure to read it.
To the AFP : ” Egypt announced on Wednesday it would build its planned nuclear powerplant on the Mediterranean coast of el-Dabaa which it hopes will start production in 2019, the state news agency MENA reported. “
” Egypt has already used several foreign companies as consultants, including Areva and Westinghouse Electric Co. (this) plant would be followed by three other reactors, tentatively scheduled to start production in 2025. “
This would be the fourth country in the region to build nuclear reactors. Meanwhile, the country is also willing to develop renewable energies such as wind and solar. Continue »
To the New York Times, 36 years after the construction began, Iran finally opened its first nuclear reactor. The plant has a capacity of one gigawatt (compared to the 1,650 MW of an EPR).
Many around the world are fearing for the region’s peace as the uranium used in the plant could also be used for bombs and missiles. The Iranian government promised to give the spent fuel rods to Russia – who helped building this plant.
This would prevent proliferation. The Bushehr plant will begin producing electricity later this year , once the 82 tonnes of low-enriched uranium will have been delivered by Russia. Continue »
According to the Wall Street Journal “ Vietnam plans to have 13 nuclear reactors online by 2030, with a combined capacity of 15 gigawatts, the government said Wednesday. “
” Nuclear power will account for 10% of the country’s total generation capacity, the government said on its website, citing a nuclear-power development plan recently approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. “
Similarly, Bulgaria and Kuwait are interested in either expanding or starting nuclear programs. This shows that more than ever, nuclear is seen as a trustworthy low carbon solution. Continue »
One of the many worrying consequences of climate change and global warming is desertification. To an expert it is currently spreading like cancer in the Middle East and in NorthAfrica.
Indeed, to data provided by The United Nations Development Programme’s 2009 Arab Human Development Report desertification is threatening 2.8 million square kilometers of land in this region.
With less water available to more people the situation will become even more explosive in the region if nothing was done to put a stop to this phenomenon.
According to an article from The Economist, Iraq has plans to quadruple its oil production by the next seven years. This would increase the production from the current 2.5 million barrels per day to 12 million barrels.
This would bring Iraq as the world’s first oil producer, putting Saudi Arabia in the second place. The country is willing to benefit more from its ample oil reserves (one of the world’s largest).
Besides the obvious technical difficulties, the problems on the geopolitical scale will be important. For more, please refer to the full article.
The World Bank via its Clean Technology Fund is investing $750 million (522 million euros) in eleven concentrating solar plants in the Middle East and North Africa region. This is due to spur additional investments worth $4.85 billion.
These projects are due to add nearly a gigawatt of capacity to local grids within three to five years in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia and would triple the current concentrated solar power (CSP) capacity.
I wonder if this could be a significant boost to the DESERTEC project as it is exactly about building renewable energy facilities in these countries. Continue »
