Scientists help make deserts into solar-energy hubs

Swap solar energy from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for scientific equipment or access to facilities in Europe. Boost the scientific level in the region through exchanges and collaboration. Establish in Cairo a joint European–MENA solar energy center for research and implementation of relevant technologies. Power the region’s scientific facilities with solar energy.

Those are among the ideas that some 250 scientists, policymakers, and others came up with in May at the Solar Energy for Science symposium held at DESY, the Electron Synchrotron laboratory in Hamburg, Germany. The atmosphere at the symposium “was really unbelievable. It was a festival,” says DESY director Helmut Dosch. “You tend to get drunk from the ideas, but we will have to find out what is realistic.”

The symposium was the inauguration of a scientific initiative inspired by and connected to Desertec, a foundation working to realize its founder’s dream: harnessing solar energy from deserts to supply much of the world’s energy demands.

Clean-energy dreams

Gerhard Knies, a retired DESY physicist, was the driving force in starting Desertec in 2009 after discovering that “within six hours deserts receive more energy from the sun than humankind consumes within a year,” as the foundation’s website proclaims (see the box on page 22). He later launched the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii), a coalition of businesses that works toward creating the necessary political, social, legal, and financial conditions to make solar energy a significant part of the energy equation. Dii aims “to pave the way for private business,” says Knies. “It’s not a company to build power plants.”

Early estimates put a total cost of about €400 billion ($580 billion) on the infrastructure required for solar energy from MENA to satisfy 15% of Europe’s energy needs by 2050. If Knies is right, “the transfer from fossil fuel to renewable energy will become the biggest business of the future.”

For its part, DESY runs on roughly 200 gigawatt-hours per year. “With our current energy mix, we are responsible for 100 000 tons of carbon dioxide per year,” says Dosch. “The key question is, How could a national lab like DESY help get [the Desertec vision] off the ground? How can we contribute to getting cleaner energy?”

The Solar Energy for Science initiative grew out of an evening of brainstorming with Knies, says Dosch. “The idea came up that [research facilities] could be a pathfinder for developing relations to North African countries on the scientific level. You build trust and joint scientific and technical projects.” Such projects could be related to solar energy, but they would not have to be. Knies adds, “I prefer to say ‘science energy for solar.’ I think science should be the driving force in building a sustainable world.” Support for achieving a robust supply of renewable energy gained momentum with the late-May announcements that Switzerland and Germany would phase out their nations’ nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima partial nuclear meltdown.

Not surprisingly, most of the ideas from the symposium are pie in the sky at this stage. One concrete action was the signing of an agreement by DESY and SESAME, the Middle East synchrotron light source under construction in Jordan, to strengthen scientific cooperation and promote renewable energy in MENA “towards a vision . . . of shared interests in energy, science and climate protection.” And several future meetings were set. In October, strategies for creating a sustainable energy supply will be discussed at a meeting on energy-management issues at large research facilities. People involved in Solar Energy for Science will meet as part of a larger Dii conference in Cairo in November. And late next year, when it holds the rotating European Commission (EC) presidency, Cyprus will host a follow-up symposium.

Pilot projects

Concentrated solar power (CSP) is the favored technology for the Desertec vision of collecting solar energy in MENA deserts (see cover photo). With CSP, sunlight is focused to heat a fluid. Molten salt, for example, can be heated to 500 °C or more, and fluids can be piped to other locations. The energy is stored as a hot fluid and converted to electricity via steam engines. “This is a chance to set up a system that supplies energy on demand, not just when the sun is shining,” says Robert Pitz-Paal, head of solar-energy research within the German Aerospace Center, which co-organized the May symposium. That capability is the main difference between CSP and photovoltaics, for which the incident solar energy is immediately converted to electricity. To send solar energy from the Sahara to Europe, though, high-voltage DC cables would need to be installed under the Mediterranean Sea.

Construction of a 500-MW solar energy project in Morocco is set to begin in 2013. That project, says Knies, “will not have the Desertec label at its gate, but we paved the way. The work of the foundation is to convince decision makers [to build solar energy plants] and to help them get the money.” Egypt has a 20-MW solar power plant, and work is starting this summer on a 1-MW CSP pilot plant whose energy output will be used for water desalination. With its €22 million contribution, the EC is paying the lion’s share of the pilot plant’s cost. Egyptian vice minister of science and technology Maged Al-Sherbiny says, “This is a research facility, but you can look at problems—with tubes [holding molten salt], dust, wind, mirrors, things of this kind. It allows you to enhance materials.” Although the project predates Solar Energy for Science, the two initiatives will form ties. “The reason for establishing the pilot plant is to encourage industry,” says Al-Sherbiny. “If this happens, solar energy will meet local energy needs and eventually can also be transported to Europe.”

“A win-win situation”

Amid the enthusiasm for solar energy, concerns crop up about the Desertec dream smacking of imperialism. Samir Romdhane, for example, says that in Tunisia, where he is a physicist at the Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte, “Our main work is on photovoltaic technology. No industry in Tunisia can produce anything for this [CSP] project, so it looks like all parts will be imported.” But, he adds, “if we can develop projects in which Tunisian industries and researchers can do something, then I think it will be a good thing.”

Odeh Al-Jayyousi, a water engineer and West Asia regional director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, says his organization and others in Jordan “are promoting Desertec as the future big idea that can transform our economy, energy, and poverty.” Given the region’s expanses of desert, he says, “We can reach a win-win situation, where we export renewable energy, localize green technology, provide green jobs, and address climate change risks.” Many MENA countries, Al-Jayyousi says, have strategic policy goals to get 10–20% of their energy from renewable sources in the next 10 years.

Scientists can offer “cooperation and exchange with institutions in MENA, and let them participate in knowledge,” says Frank Lehner, the DESY physicist who is coordinating Solar Energy for Science. “How can we create new schemes between institutions and also promote and foster deployment of renewable energies in the region? We see scientific cooperation as a key instrument for capacity building—so that people in MENA are able to get into R&D in solar energy and innovation to build their own plants. This is the idea of Solar Energy for Science.”

In the longer term, Lehner says, “we can imagine that research infrastructures in Europe could trade a physical transfer of energy from the desert and in return offer participation in our facilities. Why not push European infrastructures as the first customers for solar energy?”