Gunther Oettinger, Europe’s Energy Commissioner, has announced that the EU is expected to begin importing hundreds of megawatts of solar energy from North Africa within the next five years. The Commissioner’s comments came following a 20 June meeting with Algerian, Tunisian, and Moroccan ministers aimed at moving the renewable energy initiative forward. Importing energy from arid regions south of the Mediterranean has been proposed by Brussels as one of several strategies for helping the EU to meet its long-term goal of decarbonising its economy.
The EU currently aims to have 20 percent of its total energy requirements come from renewable sources by 2020. To help meet this goal the EU is looking to import solar energy to supplement domestic renewable energy initiatives. The solar energy captured in northern African nations would be transmitted to Europe via an inter-connector - a high voltage cable that will run under the Mediterranean Sea.
Launched in July 2009, the Desertec Industrial Initiative, which comprises 12 companies including Siemens, Deutsche Bank and REW, is in the process of developing a plan for solar power development in northern Africa. The consortium will seek public funding for its projects. The EU has stated that it will assist with updating regulations to allow transmission across European borders, coordinating stakeholders and conducting feasibility studies. The consortium has yet to produce a business plan for the proposed projects.
“I think some models starting in the next 5 years will bring some hundreds of megawatts to the European market,” Oettinger told Reuters on Sunday after the meeting. The long-term vision for the project is to provide thousands of megawatts to Europe in the next 20-40 years. The project will require a projected investment of about €400 billion and will aim to provide 15 percent of EU electricity demand. Subsidies from the EU will not be considered until the consortium produces a business plan for the project but are expected to go towards the construction of the interconnector.
Because the cost of transmitting energy from North Africa will be significant, officials must first determine whether the costs are offset by the amount of green energy the EU will actually receive. Even if solar power plants in the Sahara exhibit much higher performance, there could be a significant energy loss in the transmission to the EU.
The ministers from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco have agreed they are ready to start trade negotiations. In response to past concerns from Algerian officials regarding the EU’s exploitation of North African resources, Oettinger responded in a Reuters interview by saying, “maybe a bigger percentage of the electricity will be exported to Europe but at the same time we have to export the technology, tools, machines, experts, and so it’s a real partnership, not only a partnership by selling and by buying.”
There are concerns over how the EU will ensure that the energy transmitted is, in fact, green energy, not cheap and dirty fossil fuels. Oettinger says the problem of monitoring must be resolved in the next couple of years.
No comments:
Post a Comment