Ever since oil was discovered in the Middle East around 1950 it has gas been the driving force behind the region’s transformation. But as of late a new focus has emerged based on both an ever increasing demands for electricity but also a push to cut carbon emissions. And while not officially mentioned the Middle East needs to prepare for the day that the oil runs out: what environmentalists are calling “peak oil.” In addition to Iran, which has a highly controversial nuclear program, seven other counties in the region are proposing or have already started their own programs, according to a report by Power-Gen Worldwide.

A Regional Surge

The seven other countries includes Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). [click on the country names to read previous Green Prophet stories on these countries' nuclear ambitions.] There is also Israel, although it “likes” to be included among EU countries.

The UAE might be the smallest of the countries but it has the most ambitious of all programs with a total of 14 power plants proposed, with a combined production capacity of 14, 400 MW. (One thousand MW could power about 250,000 American homes.) The ground work for the first four are already underway.

Outside Cooperation

While signing a cooperation and transparency deal with the US, the UAE in the end awarded the contract to a South Korean consortium.

For the American companies, chiefly GE, it lost out on the bid in the UAE as Egypt recently announced that it will reward a contract for the construction its first nuclear power plant in the coming months.

Kuwait is looking to France for assistance as it tries to keep up with ever increasing electricity demand by its population, and to keep its massive desalination plants working, earlier this year signed an agreement with the French company Areva.

The rise in power consumption is one of the main reasons that may believe that Saudi Arabia will soon announce its nuclear power program, according to some estimations the electricity use in Saudi is increasing by 8-10 percent every year.

Riches in the Ground

Jordan might not have been blessed with the vast underground reserves of oil as some of its neighbors, but the country might very well have some of the region’s largest deposits of uranium, the principal fuel for a nuclear power plant.

Raising hope of not only having enough to fuel its own program but also to export to other countries as well proving much needed income.

::Power-Gen Worldwide

More on nuclear energy:

Egypt’s Long Path to Nuclear Power

Saudi Aramco’s 80-Year Reserves vs. German “Peak Oil”

Abu Dhabi Should Opt for Solar Not Nuclear for Future Needs

Despite failing to meet market expectations when its Q2 results were presented in August, the geothermal power company Ormat Technologies managed to secure an additional $108 million funding, according to the Israeli business daily Globes.

The new funding, provided by the US Department of the Treasury, will be invested in a new proposed geothermal power plant located in North Brawley, California. The capital is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed last year and allows for either a 30% cash grant or a federal production tax credit for renewable energy projects.

More US funding

Globes quoted Ormat CEO Dita Bronick:

“We also continuously seek out funding from programs like the ARRA that help support development of geothermal projects in the US. We expect that by the end of the year we will start construction of more than 100 MW of new projects in the US, which will make them eligible to receive ITC (in lieu of) cash grants.”

At the beginning of August, Ormat secured $350 million in loan guaranties for three new geothermal power plants in Nevada but this funding was part of a new strategy by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to provide up to 80% of loans for qualified renewable technology projects.

A long way from Yavne

Ormat Technologies was founded in the sleepy Israeli city of Yavne, located south of Tel Aviv, in 1972. They have since relocated to Reno, Nevada.

Today Ormat has operations in 71 counties ranging from Japan and Russia to Alaska in the US. Its  principal area of operations are geothermal power plants. To date, Ormat has installed 1,300 MW of geothermal power across the globe.

By their nature, the plants tend to be located in geyser and volcano-rich areas as they utilize the heat produced deep underground to generate electricity.

Not Just Power from the Earth

While geothermal power production is Ormat’s main area of operation it is also active in solar power. In June Ormat, together with Israeli solar energy service provider Sunday Energy announced they will build a 1MW photovoltaic solar installation on the roof of Ormat’s factory in Yavne.

Photo via hiddedevries and story via Globes

More on Ormat:

Ormat Geothermal Reports $1.5 Million Loss

Ormat Set to Release Alaska’s Geothermal Energy Potential

Sunday And Ormat Build Largest Solar Roof in the Middle East

Hopes and dreams of a gas bonanza in Israel came to a sudden halt as shares came tumbling down after the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure under Minster Uzi Landau decided to cancel any further sale of oil and gas exploration rights, the Israeli business daily Globes reported.

Broken Deals and Shady Investors

Among the companies affected were Sefen Industries and Investment, whose shares fell sharply after a deal for 10% of a gas field off the coast of Ashdod in southern Israel fell through.

Globes reports that shares in Sefen fell first by 43% and then by 37% in the first two days following the news; the failed deal came only three days after Sefen’s stock had risen 290% on rumors on a pending deal.

Another company in trouble is Ratio Oil Exploration after allegations in Israel’s largest newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth claimed that a member of a known Israeli crime family held a stake in the company.

‘Unintelligible Information’

On the tenth of September the Israeli Securities Authority suspended trading with the oil and gas exploration company Givat Olam after they found a report from the company to be unintelligible. The ISA said that they did not manage to make sense of what had or hadn’t been found by Givat Olam from the final engineering report sent to the ISA ahead of a public announcement.

Tamar, Dalit and the Leviathan

Gas exploration in the seas outside of Israel is today focused on the two fields Dailt and Tamar, of which Tamar is the larger one with an estimated 40 billion cubic meters of gas that could cover Israel’s energy needs for 20 years. However, the area that everyone is watching is the even larger Leviathan, a biblical sea monster. It is expected that in the next six months a discovery there would dwarf Tamar as the whale is estimated to hold not only 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas but also oil.

:: photo via RonAlmog and story via Globes

More about natural gas:

Will Israel’s Undersea Gas Pipeline Idea Increase the Mediterranean’s Already Polluted State?

Gas Discovery Will Not Change Israel’s World Standing

Ashkelon’s Proposed Natural Gas Power Plant Still Not Environmentally Friendly

How long is its worth waiting on your country to build its first nuclear power plant? If you are Egyptian, the answer is 45 years. That is if everything goes according to plan. According to The National, the Egyptian energy authorities have announced that by the end of year they will issue an international tender for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Al-Dabaa region to be completed in 2019.

The final decision on the location was reportedly taken by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The Al-Dabaa region along the Mediterranean coast is known for its beaches, and the local tourism industry was concerned how tourists would feel about sharing the beaches with a nuclear power plant.

A long and winding road

If the new plant is completed on time then it will have taken Egypt 45 years to capitalise on an offer made in 1974 by then U.S. President Richard Nixon, who offered to help build eight nuclear power plants to sway the most populous Arab nation to abandon the Soviet Union and join the West during the Cold War.

The idea of nuclear power was however not an imported idea since Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had already established the Egyptian Atomic Energy Commission in 1955.

But the shell shock that Egypt suffered following the defeat by Israel in the 1967 war and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 put the plans on hold until now when the need to provide electricity to an ever growing population has forced the government’s hand.

A strive to diversify

The discovery of natural gas in the 1990s, which provides 80 to 90% of today’s energy needs, also delayed the nuclear decision.

However, the Egyptian government does not plan to rely solely on nuclear power as it has set a 2020 deadline for diversifying its energy production so that 20% comes from renewable sources.

“I personally consider burning oil in the 21st century a crime. We are now mature enough to maximise our energy mix,” Ibrahim al Oseiry, a former IAEA official and an energy and nuclear affairs consultant in Egypt’s ministry of energy and electricity told The National.

“Before, for example, we used wood to get energy. Now no one is using wood. Then they started to use coal and then they started to use oil. Now, in the 21st century, it is a crime to burn oil when we have other energy resources.”

Photo by the HeyRocker and story by The National

More on Egypt on the Green Prophet

Gone Seabass Fishing…In Egypt’s Desert

Egyptian Energy Crisis Sends Protesters to the Streets

World Bank Grants Egypt 1.2 Billion Egyptian Pounds For Wind Energy

Yet another Middle Eastern country is looking to wind power for a quick solution to an ever-increasing population. This time it’s Jordan, which unlike its Gulf neighbors hasn’t been blessed with vast reserves of oil and gas, that hopes to harvest the winds sweeping the desert kingdom. The Jordanian daily Jordan Times is reporting that the Jordanian Ministry of Energy and Minerals are conducting negotiations with the Greek firm Terna Energy SA over the country’s first wind power plant.

The plant in question will be located close to the city of Jerash in northern Jordan with a production capacity of 40 megawatts. If everything goes according to plan the new facility will be up and running by 2013, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khalid Irani told the paper.

Long term goals

Jordanian Authorities has given priority to wind power as a key part of the Kingdom’s strategy for greater energy independence, with a new initiative known as the Renewable Energy Law that allows the ministry to negotiate with companies directly, and requires proposals for projects to state fixed electricity tariffs.  The new law is expected to account for 1,600MW by the year 2020.

More projects in the pipeline

In addition to the plant at Jerash, the Mineral and Energy Ministry is also talking to 16 companies from across the planet about the construction of a 90 megawatt wind power farm at Shobal some 200 kilometers or 124 miles south of the capital Amman.

Other future projects include a wind power plant in Fujeij, in the southern part of the country and a small-scale wind turbine farm in Kamsheh.

According to Jordan Times, the main obstacles to concluding the agreement were the high tariffs and prices quoted for electricity included in the proposal. Officials have indicated that the prices were based on high oil prices due to the economic situation when the proposal was crafted in late 2008.

Plan B or Plan N

While wind power is one of the ways that Jordan is dealing with electricity demands, the kingdom is also pursuing a peaceful nuclear energy program with cooperation from 11 countries ranging from the U.S. and France to Japan.

:: Jordan Times

More on Jordan:

Jordan Society for Renewable Energy’s Eco-House Education

Unholy Waters: The Jordan River is Nearly Dead, Maurice Reports

Tareq Emtairah’s Practical Eco-House in Aqaba, Jordan

Photo via jemmasmith

Do you have any plans  for the 23-24 of December? If not, perhaps you should consider booking a ticket to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to attend the the second annual Gulf Solar Conference aimed at accelerating the expansion of solar power in the Gulf region. According to conference organizers, though every square kilometer in the Gulf region receives the sunshine equivalent of 1.5 million barrels of oil, the overflow of cheap oil has until now held back the exploitation of the great energy source. However, the leaders of the region are slowly coming around to the idea and point to examples such as the MASDAR project in Abu Dhabi and the new KAUST university in Saudi Arabia.

The keynote speakers do not only represent a wide range of backgrounds, from the private industry to government officials and World Bank professionals, but also a variety of countries ranging from the UAE and Saudi Arabia to the U.S. and Israel.

Some of the key challenges that will be discussed include how current economics of solar stack up relative to oil and electricity prices in the Gulf, how to make solar cost competitive in the region, what incentives are being developed for solar power generation, which technologies will succeed, and how can they be optimized for harsh desert climates.

Vision

There are several concrete examples of this new push, such as an initial investment of $150 million from the Saudi Arabian Vision Electro Mechanical Co. Vision has been established with the goal to develop, manufacture and operate solar power plants to generate electricity. Another example is Abu Dhabi, where the electricity supplier Abu Dhabi Distribution Company plans to install a meter for every apartment, and a solar panel on every roof.

These efforts are not only limited to the Gulf region; Egypt is also planning to build a 100-megawatt solar power plant in order to meet the growing electricity needs facing the country.

Photo and story by Green Power Conferences

More on solar power:

Saudi Arabia’s “Vision Electro” Looks Up to Solar, Not Down to Oil

Solar Power To The People Of Abu Dhabi

Egypt to Build Two 100 MW Solar Energy Plants

Being small is no barrier for making big news. The Leviathan Energy Wind Lotus, the most aerodynamically efficient and cost-effective small vertical axis wind turbine in its class proved that when it was wowed media at Sde Boker in southern Israel.

The Wind Lotus is the brain child of Dr. Daniel Farb, an American who settled in Israel and established Leviathan Energy in 2006. LE is a diversified clean energy group focused on providing “state-of-the-art technologies that will change the fundamentals of the renewable energy market on a global scale.”

Small winds to bring big change

The promotion of the Wind Lotus and its successor the Wind Tulip coincided with a new Israeli governmental regulation that offers owners of small wind turbines a special tariff of up to 43 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity produced and then sold to the public Israeli Electric Company.

The goal of this new regulation is to encourage growth of distributed renewable energy in Israel, and to empower citizens to become partners in carbon-free energy independence.

Leviathan Energy claims that one of the advantages of the Wind Tulip™  is that it is able to produce electricity at winds as low as three to six feet per second, much lower than any competitors. The Wind Tulip™ will be available in both 2.0 and 3.5 kilowatt versions costing between $7,800 to $11,500, and promises a rapid return-on-investment, depending on local wind speed.

Additional advantages include low noise and vibration levels, ideal for working from residential rooftops; a third though not easily measurable advantage, at least according to Leviathan Energy, is that its turbines are beautiful and this would lower people resistance to setting them up on the roofs.

The fact that the Wind Tulip™ can be placed on rooftops means that it is setup close to the end user and will not, like other renewable energy projects, necessitate extensive bureaucracy involving the Israeli army be allowed to build in the Negev Desert.

Homegrown Technology and production

While Israel is on the front on developing solar power technology much of the production of material such as the panels themselves takes place in China and Germany meaning that both job opportunities and income is lost. Leviathan Energy aims to change this by not only using the first turbine to be used for education and student research project as well as being manufactured in Israel so to keep the jobs there.

:: Leviathan Energy

More on wind power:

As the shovel hits the sand in the remote (former) village of Braka, the site of the United Arab Emirates future nuclear power plants, many argue that using solar power would not only be safer and more environmentally friendly, but also cheaper. The residents of Braka, a village described as a row of shacks on a white untouched beach, have been relocated to other parts of the kingdom after it was chosen due to its remote location far away from the population centers to host four nuclear reactors. When completed in 2020, these will produce 5,600 MW, or a quarter of the country’s electricity demands.

Photo by jeffpearce and story via Land Art Generator

More on the UAE from Green Prophet:

Growing Green Ethic amongst Emirati Businesses

Public Transportation Takes Flight In Dubai

Solar Power To The People Of Abu Dhabi

The Israeli solar power firm 3G Solar will move on grid as part of a new ownership strategy, according to PlasticEletronics.com. What sets 3G Solar apart from most other photovoltaic solar companies is its unique technology based on the Dye Solar cell, invented in 1988 by Professor Michael Graetzel of Lausanne Polytechnique in Switzerland. Today Professor Graetzel is active in 3G solar, whose so called “Graetzel” cells are  based on a layer of nano-sized titanium dioxide particles impregnated with dye.

Artificial photosynthesis

DSC technology can best be described as ‘artificial photosynthesis’ using an electrolyte, a layer of titania (a pigment used in white paint) and ruthenium dye sandwiched between two substrates, at least one of which is transparent.

Light striking the dye excites electrons, which are absorbed by the titania to become electric current. When the dye absorbs a photon, the resultant excitation injects electrons into the titanium oxide, which transports them to the negative electrode. They also claim that one of the advantages of dye solar cell is that it will offer low cost solar power with little capital imput or technical expertise by the manufacturer.

Wax off, wax on

3G Solar CEO Barry Breen added that the change of path for the company that previously focused on off-grid power production in the developing world towards an on-grid market occurred in combination with forthcoming new technological developments; the new owners aim to develop in the framework of a new three year R&d project that will boost efficiency and market share

The three year R&D period will serve as an indicator of how far away the DSC technology is from large scale commercial use. So far one of the few products that have reached the market is a backpack by the Welsh company G24 Innovation that lets is carrier load electrical batteries using a dye solar cell patch on the back of the backpack.

Low efficiency

One of the main problems with the dye solar cell technology is that it achieves only around 7% efficiency in their cells, which is lower than standard photovoltaic technology. On the other hand, it does not use silicone making it cheaper to produce and buy, hence the previous target of off-grid communities in the developing world.

Previous investors in 3G Solar include the Quercus Trust, US based 21Ventures (we’ve featured here) and the Israeli Chief Scientists Office.

Photo via 3G Solar and story via PlasticEletronics.com

More on solar technology:
Dye-ing To Power Solar Cells in Africa
Israeli Solar Company 3GSolar to Go Public in Canada
Quick Guide to Israeli Solar Energy Companies

Residents of the Har Gilo settlement in the Guzh Etzion settlement block just south of Jerusalem might not be considered part of Israel by some. But we all know that nature does not care for political borders, and in this case, neither does green technology. The Israeli business daily Globes is reporting that Friendly Energy, an Israeli company that installs photovoltaic technology, has installed two 4 kilowatt solar installations that will supply electricity to the public power firm Israel Electric Company under a 20 year contract that will pay 54 cents per kilowatt hour. The higher price for the power is due to a complicated legal situation that has kept the residents of the West Bank outside the Israeli solar power market, which operates under a Building and Planning Law known as the Electricity Law.

While most of the West Bank is controlled by Israel, it is not a part of Israel and is therefore run by a Civil Administration that acts as de facto government over the region; hence the new power plants could only be built after receiving a special permit from the Civil Administration.

The complicated legal framework does not, however, seem to have dampened the spirit of Friendly Energy CEO Danny Denan, who told Globes that his firm would soon install an additional two facilities in settlements in other parts of the West Bank.  He added that the firm has a backlog of 30 photovoltaic installations across Israel with a total production capability of 1.5 megawatt and worth $.5.5 million.

A green coexistence?

While the project by Friendly Energy might be appear to be an Israeli settlement set up, we have previously covered several cleantech projects where Israelis and Palestinian cooperate, perhaps leading the way for a new type of coexistence.

::Globes

Photo via david55king

More on green projects in the West Bank:
Palestinian and Israeli Researchers Get Reverse Osmosis Water Grant
Global Post Names Ramallah’s Khaled Al Sabawi One Of World’s Top Energy Entrepreneurs
Palestinian and Israeli Wind Companies Create Energy Venture for Peace