The biggest solar plant in the world is in construction in Africa

There's been a real revolution in solar power. I remember reading a Krugman article last week that said something like there has been a 75% reduction in the cost of solar energy since 2008! They predict that between 2020-2025 the cost of solar energy will be cheaper than coal or gas generation from the grid. If that ain't a revolution in such a short amount of time, I don't know what is.

Herman Sheer is one of the guys behind the solar revolution in Germany. He said years ago that investing in oil is waste of money and that energy from solar will become as cheap or cheaper then energy from oil. It seems that he is right..
They are now able to produce gas from solar and in Germany they are now investing in solar storage systems..

The solar technology is developing so fast , in the seventies when the oil price was high, there were a lot of solar innovations and plans going on, but when the oil price declined the projects were cancelled. It is only since a couple years that many companies have turned to solar again, because of the high oil price.

ekema said:

Is this for Europe

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I believe the Germans are the driving force behind the solar projects in morocco.
It is to supply energy to Europe.
DESERTEC is a project supported by a foundation of the same name and the consortium Dii (Desertec industrial initiative) created in Germany as a limited liability company (GmbH).[2] The project aims at creating a global renewable energy plan based on the concept of harnessing sustainable power from sites where renewable sources of energy are more abundant and transferring it through high-voltage direct current transmission to consumption centers. All kinds of renewable energy sources are envisioned, but the sun-rich deserts of the world play a special role.[1] By taking into account land and water use, DESERTEC is intended to offer an integrated solution to food and water shortages in the coming decades.[why?][3][4][5]

DESERTEC was developed by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), a voluntary organization founded in 2003 by the Club of Rome and the National Energy Research Center Jordan, made up of scientists and experts from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EU-MENA).[6] It is from this network that the DESERTEC Foundation later emerged as a non-profit organization tasked with promoting the DESERTEC solution around the world. Founding members of the foundation are the German Association of the Club of Rome, members of the network of scientists TREC as well as committed private supporters and long-time promoters of the DESERTEC idea. In 2009, the DESERTEC Foundation founded the Munich-based industrial initiative 'Dii GmbH' together with partners from the industrial and finance sectors. Its task is to accelerate the implementation of the DESERTEC Concept in the focus region EU-MENA.[6]

The scientific studies done by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) between 2004 and 2007 demonstrated that the desert sun could meet rising power demand in the MENA region while also helping to power Europe, reduce carbon emissions across the EU-MENA region and power desalination plants to provide freshwater to the MENA region.[7][8] Dii GmbH published a further study called Desert Power 2050 in June 2012.[9] It found that the MENA region would be able to meet its needs for power with renewable energy, while exporting its excess power to create an export industry with an annual volume of more than €60 billion. Meanwhile, by importing desert power, Europe could save around €30/MWh. [10]

Here is the link below :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertec

desertec is just a dream. Reality need money and solvable countries to sign to get lones.


details about the projects and it financing

^^
^^

Indeed, the Desertec project is just too big to be completed and there are way too many "ifs" in the whole plan.

They would need $560 billion need for financing. Due to the fact that the initiative is done through the private sector, it is way too expensive and risky for most companies to enter such a long-term plan. They also lost 2 important partners over the past few days, E.ON and Bilfinger.

From what it seems, most probably these companies will still pursue separate investment opportunities in solar in North-Africa and Southern Europe and try to get a common grid for transport of the energy. Also the German public sector is promoting the creation of solar power in North Africa, the German state-owned bank KfW is one of the financiers of Ouarzazate solar plant.

Nyumba said:

re-read the whole thread.

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You reread the whole thread, this plant used to be part of the Desertec initiative, but the initiative died a silent death. This plant is being built by a Moroccan and Saudi consortium (and I think a Spanish company is involved in it as well). It is purely for the Moroccan market. Theres a (relatively) small donation from the World bank and Germany, a large donation from Saudi Arabia and Morocco itself will invest for about 9 billion dollars.

^^

Morocco’s national Solar Power Plan costs $9 billion. Phase 1 of the Ouarzazate CSP project a bit over €1 billion ($1.4 billion)

Below are the financing sources for the project



http://www.csp-world.com/news/20121...csp-plant-goes-ahead-ppa-and-financing-signed

Ulpia-Serdica said:

^^

Morocco’s national Solar Power Plan costs $9 billion. Phase 1 of the Ouarzazate CSP project a bit over €1 billion ($1.4 billion)

Below are the financing sources for the project

http://www.csp-world.com/news/20121...csp-plant-goes-ahead-ppa-and-financing-signed

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Total of 4 phases. Total production 2000 megawats - 38% of Moroccan energy needs. Not for export / Europe (yet). MASEN/FDE/SPC are the Saudi, Moroccan, Spanish consortiums.

Muttie said:

Yes, but importing 95% of the energy needs is also costly.....

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So you prefer a ten times costly Kwh produced localy than to import it? you lose the competitivness and you lose money.

For now those projects are only set up to master new technologies,and for some western developed countries amortize their R&D costs by selling you dreams, in the end you find your self indebted dreamer..........