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How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power
Guardian ^ | December 2 2007 | Robin McKie

Posted on 12/07/2007 7:53:14 PM PST by Lorianne

Europe is considering plans to spend more than £5bn on a string of giant solar power stations along the Mediterranean desert shores of northern Africa and the Middle East.

More than a hundred of the generators, each fitted with thousands of huge mirrors, would generate electricity to be transmitted by undersea cable to Europe and then distributed across the continent to European Union member nations, including Britain.

Billions of watts of power could be generated this way, enough to provide Europe with a sixth of its electricity needs and to allow it to make significant cuts in its carbon emissions. At the same time, the stations would be used as desalination plants to provide desert countries with desperately needed supplies of fresh water.

Last week Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan presented details of the scheme - named Desertec - to the European Parliament. 'Countries with deserts, countries with high energy demand, and countries with technology competence must co-operate,' he told MEPs.

The project has been developed by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Corporation and is supported by engineers and politicians in Europe as well as Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Jordan and other nations in the Middle East and Africa.

Europe would provide initial funds for developing the solar technology that will be needed to run plants as well as money for constructing prototype stations. After that, banks and financial institutions, as well as national governments, would take over the construction programme, which could cost more than £200bn over the next 30 years.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: africa; energy; solar
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1 posted on 12/07/2007 7:53:17 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

Just wait until the North Africans nationalize the resources and europe is dark and cold.

What idiots.


2 posted on 12/07/2007 7:54:50 PM PST by GovernmentIsTheProblem (The GOP is "Whig"ing out.)
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To: Lorianne

Brilliant. Give the Moo’s control over your oil AND solar power.


3 posted on 12/07/2007 7:54:51 PM PST by Kozak (Anti Shahada: There is no god named Allah, and Muhammed is a false prophet)
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To: Lorianne
Billions of watts of power could be generated this way, enough to provide Europe with a sixth of its electricity needs and to allow it to make significant cuts in its carbon emissions. At the same time, the stations would be used as desalination plants to provide desert countries with desperately needed supplies of fresh water.

Why not just promise a pony for every little girl and boy while you're at it?

4 posted on 12/07/2007 7:58:07 PM PST by randog (What the...?!)
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To: Lorianne

The ultimate NIMBY; just like the prototypical Euro weenie.


5 posted on 12/07/2007 7:58:29 PM PST by Rembrandt (We would have won Viet Nam w/o Dim interference.)
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To: Lorianne

From the sound of it, a more practical project would be to pull a large-scale Israel and terraform the entire Sahara.


6 posted on 12/07/2007 7:59:21 PM PST by Terpfen (It's your fault, not Pelosi's.)
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To: Lorianne
Here’s what happens - they build it, get power from there for a couple years, the African nations complain, saying the Europeans are stealing their power, the Euroweenie public caves and demands that these stations be ‘returned’ to the African people.
7 posted on 12/07/2007 8:02:20 PM PST by kingu (No, I don't use sarcasm tags - it confuses people.)
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To: Lorianne

Truly effective alternate energy plans will disrupt the cash flow to Gore and his cronies (which is a rapidly growing group), and will not be allowed to go further than news releases. Watch in the news reports for the crippling of nuclear and other alternate energy sources.


8 posted on 12/07/2007 8:05:33 PM PST by Rudder
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To: kingu

2 years after they are returned people will be stretching goat skins over the mirrors and living under them.


9 posted on 12/07/2007 8:20:34 PM PST by Mike Darancette (Democrat Happens!)
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To: Rudder

Yeah, and it has to be bad for the desert rat habitat.
And if the black panels absorb heat as well as light, well, hey, they’ll add to global warming! Can’t have that.


10 posted on 12/07/2007 8:29:15 PM PST by tbw2 (Science fiction with real science - "Humanity's Edge" - on amazon.com)
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To: GovernmentIsTheProblem; All

There are several different countries in North Africa, with various potentials for cooperation and/or problems. They will probably by eager to get desalinated water, and be lacking in the technical expertise to maintain the solar arrays, so one hand may end up washing the other.


11 posted on 12/07/2007 8:37:19 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: Lorianne

bmflr

.

.

.
Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts


12 posted on 12/07/2007 9:01:01 PM PST by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.)
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To: Lorianne
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
There's good reason for putting it there,if you disregard any political issues, which no clearly are pertinent.
13 posted on 12/07/2007 9:26:22 PM PST by linuxster (http://www.google.com/reader/shared/11513180806521029900)
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To: Kozak

Exactly. I thought the cry was for energy independence!?


14 posted on 12/07/2007 10:16:20 PM PST by aquila48
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To: Mike Darancette
2 years after they are returned people will be stretching goat skins over the mirrors and living under them.

It took the muslims less than two days to destroy the greenhouses Israel left behind as a gift when they removed their Gaza settlers. You give them too much credit in this case.

15 posted on 12/07/2007 10:18:27 PM PST by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Democrats spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: Mike Darancette
2 years after they are returned people will be stretching goat skins over the mirrors and living under them.

Three years after, they'll be bitching about Europeans abandoning them with this technology with no upkeep and asking for another five billion to rebuild it, with another six billion to resettle those who live under them. That's Africa.

16 posted on 12/07/2007 10:25:28 PM PST by kingu (No, I don't use sarcasm tags - it confuses people.)
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To: Terpfen
I liked the idea of building hydroelectric dams from the Mediterranean to the low spots in the Sahara. That would generate electricity and increase the rainfall in the desert. Opponents said that it would poison the aquifer, but there aren't that many people who would have to be relocated.
17 posted on 12/07/2007 10:32:46 PM PST by VanShuyten ("The pilgrims had opened with their Winchesters, and were simply squirting lead into that bush")
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To: Lorianne

They’ll have to lease it [Africa] from China probably


18 posted on 12/07/2007 10:33:08 PM PST by GeronL
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To: gleeaikin

It only takes a handful of guerrilla fighters to screw up the solar panels and the grid connection...and then no juice in Europe. You will need at least 40,000 European troops protecting this solar collection site.


19 posted on 12/07/2007 10:35:50 PM PST by pepsionice
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To: Lorianne

That’s great and look I can shoot hydrogen out of my ass.


20 posted on 12/08/2007 1:38:58 AM PST by TheThinker
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