DESERTEC Foundation is leaving the industrial consortium Dii

DESERTEC Press Release
Today, the DESERTEC Foundation announced the termination of its membership with Dii GmbH. (...)
In 2009, Dii GmbH had been founded as a cooperation between many renowned firms and DESERTEC Foundation to create appropriate conditions for the realisation of DESERTEC in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
The non-governmental Foundation, which is the main idea- and name-giver for the DESERTEC concept, is taking this step as a result of many irresolvable disputes between the two entities in the area of future strategies, obligations and their communication and last but not least the managerial style of Dii’s top management. DESERTEC Foundation also wants to avoid being dragged into the maelstrom of negative publicity about the management crisis and disorientation of the industrial consortium. The dispute at the management level has already led to resentment among the partners of the DESERTEC Foundation and it negatively affects our reputation and trust. This is what the DESERTEC Foundation intends to avoid.
DESERTEC Foundation explicitly emphasises its understanding for the challenges the industrial consortium has to face. “It was always clear to us that our idea of producing electricity from the deserts on this earth was never an easy task and will always face extreme challenges. The employees of Dii have contributed enormously to the global transition towards renewable energy. However, after many months filled with a lot of discussions we had to conclude that the DESERTEC Foundation needs to preserve its independence. This is why Dii and DESERTEC Foundation will go separate ways which does not exclude future cooperation,” said Thiemo Gropp, Director of the DESERTEC Foundation.

Masdar launches world’s largest concentrated solar power plant

Saudi Gazette
Abu Dhabi officially opened Sunday the world’s largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant covering 2.5 square kilometers (285 football fields) in Madinat Zayed in the Western Region, which cost $600 million to build and will provide electricity to 20,000 homes. The 100-megawatt capacity Shams 1 is “the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant in operation” said Sultan Al-Jaber, the head of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, which oversees the emirate’s plan to generate seven percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020. (...) Masdar now produces 10 percent of the world’s concentrated solar power, Seage said during the official inauguration. The company’s energy portfolio represents 68 percent of renewable energy produced in the Gulf region, where clean energy remains at an infancy stage.

The solar park features long lines of parabolic mirrors spread over an area equivalent to 285 football pitches in the desert of the Western Region, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of Abu Dhabi. The 192 rows of loops collect heat that drives turbines to generate power that would save 175,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year, equivalent to taking 15,000 cars off the road. Automatic trucks are deployed to dust the mirrors in this desert location where sand poses a serious challenge to the efficiency of heat collectors. Masdar owns 60 percent of the project, while France’s Total and Spain’s Abengoa Solar own 20 percent each.

Sahara solar plan loses its shine

Nature
Dimming prospects for solar energy have caught up with a massive renewable-energy project planned for the Sahara Desert. By 2050, according to its backers, DESERTEC, a network of solar plants and other renewable sources scattered across North Africa and the Middle East, could generate more than 125 gigawatts of power that could be used locally or delivered to Europe through high-voltage direct-current cables beneath the Mediterranean Sea. But one of its major backers, Siemens, based in Munich, Germany, now says that it will leave Dii, the consortium trying to advance DESERTEC, by the end of the year.

Are Solar Thermal Power Plants Doomed?

Greentech Media

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) [including all concentrating solar thermal (CST) technologies, such as trough, tower, and dish-engine - as well as concentrating PV (CPV) technologies including companies such as Amonix, SolFocus, and Concentrix] is one of our favorite renewable energy technologies, but it might be in serious trouble. (...) The relentless price declines of PV panels allows developers to build PV plants at a lower cost than their CST cousins. The better comparison is levelized cost of energy (LCOE). PV is cheaper today, and expected to widen its edge over the next decade. By 2020, the CSP technologies are expected to be in the $0.10-$0.12/kWh range, whereas PV is forecast between $0.07-$0.08/kWh.

Novos projectos solares representam 150 milhões de investimento público
O Governo aprovou recentemente 15 novos projectos para centrais de energia solar. Os pedidos de informação prévia (PIP) atribuídos, num total de 34,5 MW, estão repartidos em energia fotovoltaica de concentração (CPV) e energia termoelétrica (CSP), (...) [com] um investimento público de cerca de 150 milhões de euros, feito através da via tarifária.
[Alguns dos projectos:]
- a Self Energy vai instalar em Odelouca, Silves, uma central com capacidade de 1 MW baseada na tecnologia de discos solares (...) a implantação decorrerá por fases, após análise do comportamento dos dois primeiros protótipos, de 20 KW cada um.(...) A calendarização prevista pela Self Energy prevê que a instalação dos 50 discos solares se prolongue até 2011.
- a parceria Fomentinvest/Abengoa pretende instalar em Moura uma central de concentração solar com tecnologia de torre. O projecto, com uma potência total prevista de 4MW, terá uma torre central, 200 heliostatos e um sistema de armazenamento térmico de uma hora.
- em Faro, a Dalkia escolheu a tecnologia do Fresnel Linear, que permite concentrar a radiação em receptor tubular, produzindo vapor directamente para produção eléctrica.
Além destas três tecnologias de CSP, o Governo apostou também no cilindro parabólico. A Energena e a Martifer Energia são os dois promotores de projectos neste domínio, com 4MW previstos em cada um. A Ramada Holdings, a Hyperion Energy e a Bragalux são promotores de centrais com a tecnologia de pratos solares, em paralelo com a Self Energy. Na tecnologia de Torre Solar, a Efacec tem também um PIP atribuído, enquanto a Tom tem previsto uma central de Fresnel Linear. Na tecnologia de CPV, a Reciclamas, a Sapec, a Tecneira, a LUZ.ON e a Glintt foram os promotores escolhidos.

Activist fears solar plant influx
Brian Brown, a founding member of the Amargosa Conservancy, expressed fears over the cumulative impact of numerous solar power plants that might turn the Mojave Desert into an industrial park. (...) "If the load centers, where they need the electricity, are Las Vegas and Los Angeles (...) why don't you build it there instead of coming out to remote areas or undisturbed public land, scraping it clean, then piping electricity or wiring it and shipping it for 70 or 80 miles?" Brown asked. (...) "Imagine every Walmart parking lot covered with shade," he said. "On top of it you just put solar panels, and every mall parking lot and every piece of asphalt and everybody's home, you could put that over it and you generate electricity." (...) The result could be "thousands of miles of photovoltaic panels. Everyone would get to look at them and share the view instead of just the folks in just a few desert communities (...) A lot of people think the desert is pretty nice as a desert -- why don't we leave it like this?"

DGEG selecciona 15 PIP para energia solar

São 15 os projectos seleccionados pela Direcção-Geral de Energia e Geologia (DGEG) para ligação à rede de tecnologia fotovoltaica e solar de concentração. Os projectos foram seleccionados de entre 87 pedidos de informação prévia (PIP) recebidos no período de candidatura (com 67 a serem considerados válidos), de forma a cumprir os limites de potência estabelecidos.
Todos os PIP atribuídos se situam na região sul de Portugal. Em termos de fotovoltaico de concentração (CPV), foram cinco os projectos com luz verde da DGEG. Estes serão implantados em Setúbal, Moura, Tavira e Évora (esta região com dois PIP de CPV). Os projectos seleccionados têm como promotores a SAPEC, a Tecneira, a Reciclamas, a Glintt e a Luz.On.
Quanto ao solar de concentração (CSP), a tecnologia através de motores stirling foi contemplada em quatro dos projectos vencedores, promovidos pela Ramada (Évora), Hyperion Energy (Reguengos), Selfenergy (Silves) e Bragalux (Évora). A Efacec e o consórcio Abengoa/Fomentinvest vão apostar na tecnologia de torre solar em Tavira e Moura.
No que diz respeito à tecnologia de fresnel linear, foram também dois os PIP aprovados. Estes projectos, promovidos pela Dalkia e pela Tom, estão previstos para Faro e Moura. Por fim, a última tecnologia contemplada para produção de CSP foi a cilíndro parabólico, com dois projectos promovidos pela Energena e pela Martifer Energia, ambos em Évora.
Os 15 PIP aprovados representam uma potência atribuída de 33,5 MW. Os vencedores foram anunciados ontem, durante a apresentação do Plano Novas Energias, com os objectivos estratégicos energéticos a atingir até 2020.

More Firms Join Desertec Solar Project
Desertec – the ambitious $550 billion dollar project to generate electricity for Europe and North Africa through large solar collectors arrayed in the Sahara desert – took a step closer to reality this week with the announcement that the Arizona-based solar manufacturer First Solar had joined the project. (...) ”Five companies from Morocco, Tunisia, Spain, France and Italy will join the Desertec solar power project that aims to supply 15 percent of Europe’s power by 2050,” said Paul van Son, the chief executive of Desertec, in an interview with Reuters. (...) Critics have also voiced concerns that focusing on external resources could undermine efforts to generate renewable energy within Europe. ”The only reason to start this project would be because there is not sufficient potential for renewable energy at home. But this line of reasoning means lying about the renewable potential and is refuted,” said Hermann Scheer, a member of German parliament and president of Eurosolar, the European Association for Renewable Energy, when the project was initially announced last June.