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A perfect storm of inflation, supply chain disruption, spiralling interest rates and delays in connection to the UK’s national grid means that the swathe of solar farms approved and going through planning permission in the UK are likely to be severely delayed or cancelled undermining any hopes of achieving a government target of a fivefold increase to 70GW by 2035.

A new study by Huw Evans, an Energy Consultant and former Head of Global Economics for BG Group suggests that under the current macro-Economic conditions and impasse at obtaining connection to the National Grid, any chance of these solar farms being viable in the near future is negligible.

The UK government has gambled heavily on promoting solar energy to achieve its stated goal to be carbon neutral by 2035, he says.

In his report, Evans goes on to say that despite greatly increased prices offered by the Government in their Contract for Difference (CfD) allocation round, to encourage Renewable Energy, where prices have been increased by 30% for Solar Energy, solar developers will still struggle to make any return on their investment.

That is before you take into any account delays in connecting to the national grid. “The UK Government has vastly underestimated the increasing costs to develop solar farms, where their assumptions suggest the UK can develop Solar Energy cheaper than anywhere else in the world; based on published data, which is clearly unrealistic!” he says.

The UK not ideal for solar power

Within the report, Evans points to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) data that shows that given the UK’s climate, solar energy is within the worst 5% areas in the world to develop solar electricity, as only 10%-11% of the capacity of Solar Farms will ever be generated annually compared to double that in places such as Spain, Australia and parts of the US.

For Grid connection, as of November 2023, there are 1,300 projects that are awaiting connection to the grid which amounts to 400 Giga Watts (GW) of Grid access requirements. Companies applying for Grid access have been told they have to wait 15 years before any electricity they produce can be sold.

New rules issued by The National Grid to alleviate the backlog of connections which effectively are “get on, get back or get out of the energy queue” are in danger of creating thousands of acres of White Elephants, as grid connections continue to be delayed with diggers tearing up the landscape and then being suspended as projects are put on hold pending a grid connection date.

Evans points out that this as already happened in Torquay Devon where diggers have already cleared the site only to be told that Grid connection will be at least 5 years and there are indications that that could slip into the mid 2030s.

He further notes that Centrica have said that approximately 80% of the 300 substations across England and Wales need upgrading and “supergrid transformers are huge bits of kit that weigh several hundred tonnes, and it takes years to install them.

“We’re talking five to eight years for each one of these.”

For projects to progress they will probably need an allocation of a Contract for Difference (CfD) in the auction rounds, which come with a deadline of when the project needs to come on stream, a date from The National Grid to be connected which may or may not be in line with the deadline set by the CfD and provide the investor and financiers with a viable return on their investment which in the current climate is very doubtful.

The post Downgrade your expectations for solar energy investments in the UK appeared first on Green Prophet.

Mária Telkes, a solar energy pioneer. The Hungarian-American biophysicist and inventor Mária Telkes pioneered solar energy by inventing a solar oven, a solar desalination kit and, in the late 1940s, she helped design one of the first solar-heated houses.

Mária Telkes, born on December 12, 1900, in Budapest, Hungary, emerged as a solar energy pioneer long before the world would turn to renewable energy. She invented a solar oven, a solar desalination kit and, in the late 1940s, she helped design one of the first solar-heated houses. She is known as the Sun Queen.

Telkes, who came from a Jewish family that converted to Christianity, studied at the University of Budapest and then later in Switzerland at the University of Geneva where she mastered chemistry and physics, and earned a Ph.D. in 1924.

In 1925, while visiting her uncle in Cleveland, USA, she worked along the renowned surgeon George Washington Crile who performed the first successful blood transfusion.

Telkes dedicated the next 12 years of her life to researching the energy changes cells undergo during death or cancer, resulting in the publication of their findings in a collaborative book.

Upon becoming an American in 1937, Telkes joined Westinghouse Electric, where her focus shifted towards solar energy in 1939 upon becoming a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Solar Energy Conversion project.

As the world grappled with the Second World War, Telkes was enlisted by the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), which worked on the Manhattan Project. Her task was to leverage solar energy to transform salty water into drinkable water, addressing the critical issue of dehydration faced by soldiers at sea.

In response, Telkes invented the first solar water distillation device, capable of producing one liter of drinkable water per day using seawater. This innovation quickly became a standard component in every soldier’s pack, earning her a merit from OSRD for her invaluable contribution.

However, Telkes’ most renowned invention was the creation of the first solar house in 1948, the Dover Sun House, near Boston, designed by Eleanor Raymond and tested by the Némethy family, Telkes’ relatives.

To tackle the challenge of storing solar energy for use on cloudy days, Telkes ingeniously employed a glauber salt solution (natrium sulfuricium) with a low melting point (32 °C) and high enthalpy of fusion, capable of storing solar energy for up to ten days.

Despite initial challenges – the unusually cold winter of 1948 and subsequent leakage in the solution tanks in 1953 – the solar house laid the groundwork for the acceptance of solar energy as a viable heating source.

“It was a proof of premise, a radical idea for her to be thinking that broadly and to think that far ahead and actually create a liveable house as an experiment,” says Andrew Nemethy, who was a boy who lived in the Dover Sun House growing up. “She needed astronauts, and I guess we were the lucky ones,” he said in a PBS documentary.

This marked a significant shift, considering that sustainable development was not yet a recognized term. People began incorporating solar panels into house designs, often complemented by traditional heating systems in areas with insufficient sunny days.

The Dover Sun House was demolished in 2010. A PBS documentary explores the contribution of Telkers and the Dover Sun House that would be heated only by the sun in a New England winter.

Telkes received the Society of Women Engineers Award in 1952, earning the moniker “The Sun Queen” in the United States.

In 1953, when Telkes was at New York University, she received a Ford Foundation grant to develop a solar stove that could be used in developing countries. Like the designs previous, she took a simple approach.

The stove was constructed as an insulated metal box equipped with doors on both ends, topped with glass over the food placement area. Harnessing the sun’s rays, the glass amplified their intensity, aided by four metal plates strategically angled at 60 degrees.

Triangular mirrors positioned between the plates further enhanced the amplification of solar wavelengths. Remarkably, the stove could reach temperatures of 400 degrees, requiring no specialized materials for its construction and boasting an affordable price tag of merely four dollars.

Its user-friendly design (you can download the instructions here) found a welcoming market in midcentury India, precisely the tropical climate its inventor had envisioned. Telkes enthusiastically praised its merits to a reporter during a cooking demonstration, expressing, “Everything seems to taste so much better when it is cooked by the sun.”

In 1977, the American Solar Energy Society honored her with the Charles Greeley Abbot Award. At the age of 90 in 1990, Telkes submitted her last invention, leaving an indelible mark on the field.

Returning to her hometown, Budapest, after 70 years, Telkes passed away on December 2, 1995, at the age of 94. In recognition of her unparalleled contributions, she was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2012, alongside physicist Dénes Gábor.

Mária Telkes’ legacy endures as an inspiration for future innovators and a testament to the transformative power of solar energy in shaping a sustainable future.

The post Who was Mária Telkes, the solar energy Sun Queen? appeared first on Green Prophet.

As many already know, renewable energy is the future of electricity generation. Solar, wind, geothermal, hydrogen, and hydropower are necessary sources of renewable energy our planet needs in order to slow the effects of climate. Obtaining energy via renewables is the best alternative to energy generation because it does not release greenhouse gas emissions.

However, renewable energy does not get stored on its own. For example, when solar panels absorb sunlight and generate electrical charges, the electricity generated does not stay there forever if it does not get used. For this reason, I will share with you a company that has designed a solution to this problem.

Meet H2 Energy Now. Founded by Sonya Davidson in 2011 and based in Beersheba, Israel, H2 Energy Now has developed technology that makes renewable energy more usable by storing it so that none of it goes to waste. Sonya was inspired to start the company by her fascination with water, and she learned from her mother the principles of water and took it into her career.

She knew from her high school science project that energy storage was key to solving future energy problems which we are faced with today. Now, with 15 years in Israel, Sonya’s company is excelling in the renewable energy industry.

H2 Energy Now creates green hydrogen that is efficient and costs less. Much of the energy that is produced from wind and solar energy is not being used, therefore goes to waste. For this reason, H2 Energy Now has generated a prototype that allows them to store the energy in the form of hydrogen.

When energy is needed, the hydrogen is then able to be converted into usable forms of energy. By using electromagnetic waves, the hydrogen energy storage system separates water that is able to generate electricity. The good thing about this is a small amount of water can generate a large amount of hydrogen, and the water can come from both salt and fresh water. This technology is better for their customers because the power is always available for use and it’s grid stable. In addition, it is more cost-effective as it cuts their payback on the investment in half.

Tests have shown that H2 Energy Now is 88% efficient for 60% electrolysis and that the capital expenditures are half of electrolysis. They have reached the proof of principle prototype stage and have patents granted in the US and in Europe. In addition, they have patents in France, Germany, and Great Britain. They were also selected as the winner by Corporate Live Winner in 2023 and by NASA as a top 10 energy company. They are currently working to commercialize their prototype and have completed two six-month high-tech accelerators.

This company wants to change the world, and they are already on their way to do just that. They are currently  fundraising and are self-funded up until now.

“Who is wise? The answer is those willing to learn from everyone,” Sonya quoted from a philosophy of the Jewsh fathers. Sonya said that her and H2 Energy Now are inspired by this quote and this is what they look at in order to learn, educate and move forward in this innovation towards a green sustainable future.

#energystorage, #green, #innovation, #renewableenergy, #sustainability

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Mass migration of people suffering from conflict and climate change ––  from Syria to Iraq to Yemen, to all over countries in Africa –– worries Europe. Climate change messes up water resources, limits agriculture; it promotes famine and exacerbates pest infestations like the locust attack weighing down on Africa and the Middle East right now.

Good news from our hardworking neighbors in Germany – the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Development Bank KfW, has just given $54 million USD in aid to help keep young Congo men out of the hands of warlords.

The aid will help the people in the Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as the DRC. The DRC is arguably the most mineral-rich country in the world – laden with gold, diamonds, copper, lithium, while conversely years of conflict and poor management has kept its people dirt poor. 

Strengthening Smallhold Farmers

The aid money sent by Germany will support over 180,000 people living in rural areas – most of them smallholder farmers – in Walikale territory in North Kivu and Mwenga and Walungu territories in South Kivu.

The farmers will receive assistance to strengthen their agricultural production and post-harvest management, diversify their income generating activities, and improve nutrition and basic social services, the FAO tells us. This, in turn, will contribute to peace and stability in the region.

We hope.

And for Germany and other European countries that means less trouble for them in terms of migrants and refugee absorption, and more economic stability globally. No one wants to see Africa suffer and it’s high time we help all the African nations out of the mess.

Stopping warlords through farming

Besides being mineral rich, the DRC is one of the most fertile countries on earth and has great agricultural potential with approximately 80 million hectares of arable land – the second-largest cultivable area in the world after Brazil. It is also home to approximately half of the continent’s water resources. Yet, its potential remains largely unexploited and it remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

In North and South Kivu, the socio-economic fabric has been destroyed by decades of conflict, displacement and recurring agricultural and climate shocks. Local warlords often take advantage of adolescents’ vulnerability and low levels of education to enroll them in armed groups.

“Without food security, there can be no peace,” said Aristide Ongone Obame, the FAO representative in the DRC. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in the east of the DRC will be distributing the aid: “This joint programme offers us the opportunity to break this cycle through building resilience – making households, communities and national systems better equipped to prevent and cope with similar shocks in the future in ways that support economic and social development, preserve integrity and protect children,” said Edouard Beigbeder from UNICEF.

The Government of Germany has been supporting resilience building activities in the Kivus since 2017 with a contribution of $40 million USD through a joint program now winding down. The new programme will build on the successes of this programme, which has reached more than 400,000 people.

Time to invest in renewables in Africa?

It’s time for some contributions from the Middle East and Arab world. Maybe some Arab loan incentives to get renewable energy into the mining industry?

A number of gold mining companies, including one of the world’s biggest – Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) is actively mining in the DRC. Barrick has said over and over again that Environmental, Social and Governance (or CSR) is essential, not an option, in the mining industry. So they could be excellent partners to work with.

According to Catherine Raw, Chief Operating Officer, North America for Barrick Gold, it’s time for gold mining companies to wake up: that investors are aware of and actually want corporate social responsibility (CSR) or ESG criteria to be met when they invest: She tells the Northern Mining News: “ESG is not a new phrase, corporate governance, social responsibility, licence to operate, sustainability: these are all words that have been going on well at least since I came out of university.

“When you own a supermarket, or you own a retailer, or you own a tech company,” she explains, “you don’t have the same kind of exposures. However, this can be a driver or has the potential to drive M&A activity because investors are identifying management teams they trust, those management teams who are able to mitigate or manage the risks associated with ESG issues successfully and have a track record to do so.

“And those companies that slip up, are getting punished in a far greater way than they ever have done in previous cycles,” she cautions. 

If you look at Barrick investor reports, you will notice that more than half of it focuses on the contributions they give back to society. You can see their sustainability section on their website. So gold might be the boost: Gold is a finite resource and in times of trouble (like coronavirus) investors are looking to put their money into the stability of gold. 

A golden opportunity for national solar and wind power projects?

Barrick has JVs with a number of young gold companies and exploration companies out of Canada including Loncor in Toronto (TSE:LN). Canada, as a resource-rich country that knows how to operate mines, and the Arab world as an oil producer that clearly needs to diversify away from oil, could be great partners in turning the DRC –– and all of Africa at large ––  into a renewable energy hub that sends power to all of Africa and parts of Europe. Financing renewable energy projects is not charity. It’s a means of investing and doing good at the same time.

On the sunbelt, mineral rich with gold and diamonds, all parties involved could reap the rewards, as well as local communities near the mines.This article here points out how microgrids, led by mining companies, can be the future and increase corporate dividends.

But meanwhile, aid is still needed to fend off immediate hunger and troubles and build resilience until this bold plan will take root – pulling sun and wind from Africa and turning it into renewable energy across continents.

NASA dreamt it up, then the US Department of Energy, and most recently the Desertec project that never got off the ground. A new mix of dreamers, financing partners from the western east, and the mining industry to believe in it, will help this bold plan hold. What do you think?

The post Germany invests in the DRC, but renewables could save all of Africa appeared first on Green Prophet.

Although enlightened people are turning to more sustainable sources of protein (like our vegewarian recipes), it’s not likely that the human hunger for meat and milk will ever go away. While dairy and meat industries continue expanding to meet market demands, the manure of cows, sheep, pigs, goats and camels continues raising the levels of land and water pollution.

Livestock gases significantly raise greenhouse gas levels that contribute to global warming. Some efforts have been made to reduce cattle gases by putting herbs that reduce flatulence in their feed – no great success.

And what of that by-product, manure? Most often, it gets dumped into local waterways or shoveled into piles and left to decompose. Statistics show that in the US alone, livestock produces over a billion tons of waste every year.

Livestock manure has traditionally been used as fuel. Some companies have extracted biogas from it, but as the amounts of waste increase globally, so does the need for a more efficient treatment system. Sustainable Green Technologies (SG Tech) is an Israeli start-up that addresses the issue with an out-of-the-box attitude and a promising new technology.

Daniel Madar, a reusable energy specialist working with SG Tech says,

“You can take cow manure and use the material as fertilizer without any prior treatment, but when you turn the material into biogas, you get two or three products out of one raw material. When you take the manure and treat it, you solve the problem of smell and contamination, and then you get energy plus fertilizer.”

The drawback of biogas production up till now has been that it’s time-consuming and creates an unusable side-product, digestate. That’s the water that remains after treating waste, containing high levels of nutrients and salt.  It’s not irrigation-safe. What to do with it? Pouring it into the sewage system could overload water-treatment facilities to the point of collapse, Madar forecasts. And purifying digestate too expensive to consider.

Spraying digestate onto fields only harms them. “It can be used as a fertilizer because it has a lot of nutrients in it. However, it is too concentrated, and the result is that this digestate seeps into water aquifers, pollutes them and causes salinization of the fields,” Madar explains. 

Reuven Eitan, IP and PR manager at SG Tech adds: “SG Tech is producing biogas and obtaining 20% more of the methane concentration; thus producing 20% more energy.” SG Tech methods, claims the company, provide a solution that produces “…clean energy, clean water, and nutrient-rich organic compost.”

There’s no denying that biogas also affects the environment. But compare these figures:

The amount of waste that livestock animals produce in the US could potentially create 108.8 billion kilowatt-hours of energy. Greenhouse gases produce could rise to 69.6 million metric tons.

Obtaining the same amount of electricity from coal would produce 109.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.

Clearly, biogas is a more reliable and efficient source of fuel than coal, with fewer gases produced. SG Tech also claims that the amount of digestate produced by their system is minuscule compared to that created by current waste treatment.

In 2015, Israel’s agriculture produced 2.26 million metric tons of gases; 2.8% of all greenhouse gases.

Realistically, the world can’t rely only on livestock waste for fuel needs. Madar estimates that in Israel, and likely in other countries, biogas from waste would account for 7% of energy produced.

“It’s not really a replacement for coal or natural gas or petroleum. However, if we use this waste to produce energy, we can reduce the cost of getting rid of this waste, and we can turn it into something more green and more sustainable,” he says. He adds that this new technology is the only one that can handle the waste treatment of cow sheds that hold up to 2,000 cows. Medium-sized dairies could fuel themselves using it.

The SG Tech system has already been tested in several dairies. There are now plans to install it in 10 medium-sized cowsheds in Israel and across the world by the end of 2020.

::Via ZAVIT, Science and Environment News Agency. 

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Mosques are major electricity consumers as five prayer times throughout the day keep their doors open predawn to well after sundown. They require artificial lighting and often feature mechanically heated and cooled air to keep worshipers comfortable. The Jordanian government spends over US$70 million annually to run and maintain its existing inventory and construct a yearly average of 150 new mosques too.

“Mosques use large amounts of electricity and the project will help to significantly reduce their electricity bills as around 300 days in the year are sunny,” Ahmad Abu Saa, a spokesman for Jordan’s energy ministry, told The Jordan Times.

Samer Zawaydeh, a Jordan-based freelance engineering consultant, told PV Magazine, “The Renewable Energy and Efficiency Law 13 (REEL 13), issued 2012, allows any electricity consumer to cover 100% of their electricity needs by installing net-metering solar PV systems.”

Payback on investment is roughly 30 to 36 months in Jordan, depending on system components.

Reducing the amount spent on electricity would free up funds for other social programs and enable mosques to generate revenue through a net metering program which allows solar energy producers to sell excess energy they produce back to the government.

The project is financed by grants and zakat contributions (zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam that requires the faithful to give to charity). Donate zakat to an Islamic charity like this one. In Jordan, the new projects will start with tenders to retrofit 120 mosques with PV systems, then expand across the nation.

Jordan imports more than 95 percent of its energy needs, spending as much as 16 percent on energy, or more than 40 percent of the nation’s budget. The country aims to secure 10 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020 and expects 1,800 megawatts to be linked to its national power grid by 2018.  To that end, a 117 megawatt wind farm is under construction in Tafila, a public-private partnership that includes Abu Dhabi’s Masdar as one of its investors.

Last year, Al-Wifaq mosque became Jordan’s first clean-energy place of worship when it installed 10 kWp solar PV system on its rooftop.  One of the mosque’s neighbors paid for the work.

Jordan’s decision to remove the kingdom’s mosques off grid could be an answer to environmentalists’ prayers.

Image of King Abdullah Blue Mosque in Amman from Shutterstock

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Lebanese renewable energy have fallen short of its ambitious goal of reaching 12 percent of Lebanon’s energy needs by the year 2020. But now it is in the middle of building its first wind farm at about 60 MW in the country’s north. 

Being a country that has largely been dependent on imported coal and petroleum, Lebanon is in sharp contract with oil exporting Middle Eastern countries who have  much oil and are willing to trade it for water. But the country’s first wind project is well under way.

This situation may change somewhat when the country’s first wind farm project will produce enough electricity to illuminate 60,000 homes. When the Lebanese government issued a tender to build a 50 to 100 megawatt (MW) wind turbine farm, four companies applied; including a Lebanese firm called Hawa Akkwar who applied together with Greek and Chinese partners.

Doing an onsite wind test in Lebanon

The tender was won by the Hawa Akkar partnership, who plan to construct a 60 MW wind farm in the country’s northern Akkar district. This is an area said to be in dire need of more electricity infrastructure.

When completed, the wind farm is estimated to be able to supply power to illuminate around 60,000 homes. Hawa Akkar’s general manager, Albert Khoury, said that the Akkar region was chosen for the wind farm due it “being a public services deprived area since long ago.”

He added that the wind farm will provide reasonably priced electricity for the region, strengthen the region’s economy and tourism business; and provide additional employment opportunities.

Wind farming in the Middle East

Wind farms, as compared to solar energy, have not yet become prevalent in most parts of the Middle East and Mediterranean areas. Morocco and Egypt have larger wind power projects, with Egypt’s Zafaraana wind farm at Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea  the region’s largest with 360 megawatts. The Zafaraana wind farm, when running at full capacity, should be able produce as much as 545 megawatts of clean electricity.

Video in Arabic explaining the company’s goals:

Lebanon can benefit significantly from alternative energy projects due to its coastlines becoming heavily polluted by sewage runoff and oil spills. Although the Akkar wind farm will only produce around 60 – 80 megawatts of electricity, the Mayor of Machta Hammoud, Mr. Naji Ramadan, and Deputy Mayor of Muqabla, Mr. Ahmed Akkar (two area communities that will benefit from the project) said that the wind farm will provide power to homes that now suffer from electricity rationing.

More articles on Mid East Wind Energy and Issues surrounding it:

Turkey’s Largest Wind Plant to Power 179,000 Homes

Who’s Got the Wind Power in the Middle East?

Can Lebanon Reach 12% Renewable Energy by 2020?

Images of Hawa Akkar mast tests and launch event via the company website/Facebook page

The post Hawa Akkar Wind Farm to Illuminate 60,000 Lebanese Homes in First for Country appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Shard architect Renzo Piano has partnered with Italy’s Enel Green Power to design a new ultra lightweight wind turbine that has a smaller visual impact on the landscape than conventional wind turbines.

Upon inauguration of Qatari-owned The Shard, locals complained that Renzo Piano’s soaring 1,016 foot skyscraper completely dominated the London Bridge Quarter in which it was built.

But that is no indicator that the world-renowned Genoese architect is unable or unwilling to produce designs with a more modest footprint.

Working in collaboration with Enel, a leading green energy provider, Piano designed the Dragonfly Invisible Wind Turbine – a compact turbine with just two-blades that are better suited to widespread implementation than conventional turbines with three blades.

Just 66 feet tall, the tower’s blades have a 52 foot diameter rotational span and are able to harvest even the lightest winds due to the lightweight carbon and polycarbonate materials out of which they are constructed. At the same time, it is important that the blades don’t over-function in high speed winds.

The turbine is currently undergoing testing at the Molinetto test field in Italy’s Pisa province, home to the ENEL research center, and may be mass produced once viability studies are complete for widespread distribution throughout Italy.

Sites in the Middle East and North Africa have great wind energy potential – particularly along the Mediterranean coast, but conventional wind turbines are so large and costly that it’s very unlikely that more than a few clean energy enthusiasts would employ them en masse.

But the smaller turbines, which are virtually “invisible” when not in use since the two blades – inlaid with transparent plexiglass panels – align vertically with the tower, have a lot more potential for residential and small-scale commercial applications.

In a recent release, Enel Green Power describes their motivation for commissioning Renzo Piano to design the Dragonfly Invisible Turbine.

“The new mini-wind-turbine blade is part of Enel Green Power’s strategy for innovation that targets improving the performance of all the renewable technologies, making them more available and less prone to problems linked to intermittency.”

:: Designboom

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Just weeks after launching the world’s largest Concentrated Solar Plant (CSP) in their own backyard, just outside of Abu Dhabi, Masdar announces the official opening of their most recent foreign renewable energy plant. The $31.99 million, 15MW photovoltaic plant accounts for 10 percent of Mauritania’s existing energy capacity and has the potential to offset 21,225 tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide every year.

Masdar’s green pastures

Promoting energy self-sufficiency abroad comprises a crucial component of Masdar’s grand plan.

The government-backed company is already building a wind farm in the Seychelles, owns part of the world’s largest wind farm in England, the London Array, and recently confirmed plans to take solar energy to Tonga.

Masdar is also a partial owner of the first solar plant in the world that can produce energy 24 hours a day and seven days a week – the 19.9MW Gemasolar CSP plant in Spain, and that doesn’t even begin to shed light on the numerous green schemes they are cooking up back home.

But arguably none will have as dramatic an impact as this relatively small solar farm in Mauritania.

One PV plant = 10% of the country’s capacity

Currently, the country gets most of its energy from diesel generators. In addition to being loud, dirty, environmentally appalling, and unsightly, generators are expensive to run and vulnerable to vacillating fuel prices.

The new Sheikh Zayed Solar Power Plant in the capital Nouakchott will take Mauritania one step further away from this kind of polluting energy supply with enough renewable energy to power 10,000 homes.

And all 29,826 of the plant’s micromorph thin-film panels are placed in mounts that were driven directly into the ground, instead of a concrete platform, in a unique effort to reduce the project’s overall carbon footprint.

“Energy access is a pathway to economic and social opportunity,” said Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz during the inauguration of the solar plant. “Electrification, through sustainable sources of energy, is critical in ensuring our people have access to basic services and is a step toward improving our infrastructure and long-term economic development.”

Future potential

Mauritania has diamonds, gold and some oil, in addition to a few other natural resources, but their potential for solar and wind energy is likely to draw the most attention in coming decades. Their wind energy potential alone is four times greater than the entire country’s current demand, which is expected to rise by 12 percent a year, according to Masdar.

“Renewable energy has the potential to be a major contributor to the energy mix in developing countries where access to conventional energy is limited,” said Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar.

“With energy demand expected to nearly double by 2030, renewable energy will play an increasingly important role, especially in countries where demand is rapidly outstripping supply.”

The big projects are exciting, and Masdar has enough of those under its umbrella, but these small plants are essential too. Like the tortoise that wins the race in western folklore, 10 megawatts here and 15 megawatts there add up by slowly chipping away at our dependence on fossil fuels.

Images by Clement Tardif

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