Siemens, Germany’s giant electronics firm, appears to be in final stages of pulling out from its investment in Israel’s Solel Solar initiative. The four-year project began in 2009, when Siemens entered into an agreement to buy  the Israeli solar company. The beleaguered solar energy projects company received what seems to be a death knell.

Siemens recently announced the firing of 150 of its remaining 200 employees, leaving only a technical staff of 50 employees to deal with some solar energy projects in Spain.

News of this action appeared Sunday in Israel’s Globes financial newspaper,  which reported that the action was due to Siemens not being able to find a buyer for the ailing thermal solar projects  company.

Solel Solar became known as a global leader in building solar thermal fields, using parabolic mirrors that concentrate the solar energy onto solar thermal receivers containing a heat transfer fluid. The heat transfer fluid is circulated and heated through the receivers, and the heat is released to a series of heat exchangers to generate super-heated steam.

The steam powers a turbine/generator to produce electricity delivered to a utility’s electric grid. Although the company did supply solar thermal plants for some projects, including some in Spain, there has been controversy surrounding using large solar mirror projects which environmental experts fear may cause blindness to animals living in the areas when the solar mirrors are erected making them a “death Knell” for area wildlife.

Siemens acquired Solel Solar in 2009 for $418 million USD and at its peak 400 employees worked there. Besides the environmental issues, the thermal solar technology used  became too expensive to compete in a declining solar energy market where  photovoltaic solar panels were also having market problems. Siemens made a decision in late 2012 to quit the solar energy business.

A Spanish company, Abengoa SA had made a previous offer to purchase Solel Solar from Siemens. It later withdrew the offer when it became apparent that the future of the solar energy market was uncertain. Siemens has lost “hundreds of millions of Euros” in the project.

Read more on Siemens and Solel Solar:

Siemens Exits Israel’s Solel Solar Initiative

German Giant is Selling off Solel and its Solar Assets

New Study Shows that Negev Solar Farm is a Death Knell for Wildlife.

Siemens Mulls Buying Israeli Solar Company Solel

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Proponents of environmental reform (renewable energy, greener economy) are racing against the forces of environmental destruction (fossil fuel industry, global warming), while the rest of us wait to see which will reach the finish line first.

In the Middle East and Africa (MEA), fossil fuels are way ahead. Many countries, South Africa in particular, rely too much on coal, while others like Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi have played a crucial role in our oil addiction. But there may be hope. Leading analysts for the photovoltaic industry, NPD Solarbuzz recently reported that PV demand in the MEA has soared in the last year with an astounding 625 percent increase.  

Solarbuzz outlines how the PV industry is taking off in the Middle East and Africa in their annual Middle East and Africa PV Market Report. This year they have zeroed in on three countries that are taking the largest strides, all of which we found surprising.

Whereas MEA only accounted for 0.5 percent of the world’s PV demand in 2012, according to PV Magazine, by 2017, the region’s share of global PV solar generation is expected to climb to six percent.

South Africa is finally getting serious about renewables, after burning cheap and dirty coal for decades, with plans to install 1.45GW under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Program (REIPPP) by the end of 2014.

Despite a longstanding obsession with fossil fuels, Israel follows close behind, which makes sense given that the country has spawned many of the solar energy technologies deployed internationally (read about BrightSource Energy for a perfect example.)

Back home, Germany’s M&W Group has recently won a contract to build a 55MW PV plant 100 km south of Tel Aviv, and new solar-friendly legislation is expected to speed up development of others.

Located near Moshav Ohad, the plant will be constructed on 1,000,000 square meters of land, and a horizontal tracking system that follows the sun across the sky will boost the efficiency of its 180,000 crystalline PV modules by 25 percent, according to Tenders Info.

Together South Africa and Israel will make up 80 percent of the region’s PV demand this year, but the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is shifting their energy mix such that it will be the region’s largest producer of solar energy by 2017.

Now if we could just get them to stop with the fossil fuels already.

Image by Ryan Carter / Crown Prince Court – Abu Dhabi via Masdar’s Facebook page

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PV Insider is hosting a free webinar tomorrow, Tuesday 5th March at 08.00am GMT / 09.00 CET / 12.00 GST to discuss specific challenges and opportunities associated with solar growth in Algeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the Arab world. Hit the jump for more details and to find out how to register for this very important event.

Vahid Fotuhi, President of ESIA and Daniel Zywietz of the Clean Energy Business Counci/Ambata Capital will join Matt Carr at PV Insider for a 60 minute session, which will feature industry polls and an extended question and answers session.

Virtually undisputed is that the MENA region has enormous solar energy potential that can and should be exploited in order to promote greater economic and energy independence, while reducing overall carbon emissions.

But a host of both practical and political challenges have stunted growth until now, for which there are two major reasons, according to PV Insider.

Local governments and agencies are not well briefed on either the long term environmental or fiscal benefits of solar energy, and there is an absence of project experience in the region from which to gather lessons learned.

Dialog and education can not only help local officials incorporate photovoltaic power into their energy mix, but it can also equip outsiders with the specific cultural and practical exigencies of the region.

The webinar will provide a useful guide for all PV solar professionals interested to enter this lucrative but murky new market, and will also identify various off-grid opportunities for those who aren’t sure where to find them.

The webinar can be joined for free by following the link below; there is limited space, so sign up now!

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/746646086

Image of solar panels in the desert, Shutterstock

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Thanks to the 2013 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (we were invited to), some new development partnerships between United Arab Emirates renewables company, Masdar, and both the Jordanian and French governments were formed; Greenpeace released Jordan’s Energy Future, their first report specific to the Arab world; and now Green Prophet’s learned that the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)  based in Abu Dhabi just launched a Global Renewable Energy Atlas.

The new atlas shines a light on the world’s wind and solar infrastructure and, by cataloging resources into an open-access web-based tool, aims to accelerate adoption of clean energy technology. The Global Atlas is the most comprehensive information platform on the potential of renewable energy.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/mZMfqQcYYyc[/youtube]

Consolidating renewable energy data from leading technical institutes into a single, free encyclopedia enables countries to easily assess their national clean energy potential and facilitate companies considering investments in renewables. The Atlas also provides detailed resource maps and tools for evaluating the technical potential of renewable energies. It aims to serve as a catalyst for policy development and planning.

“Assessing renewable energy resources is the necessary first step in answering these questions and in eventually creating an enabling market environment for deploying renewable energy. This first step requires large upfront investment in evaluation, and a high level of technical knowledge. That is why a global and open portal providing this information can make it easier to take this first step,” IRENA sources told the Khaleej Times.

The agency acknowledges that the map is incomplete, stating, “In the build-up phase, the availability of data will vary from region to region depending on what has been made available to the initiative. There will also be variation in the temporal and spatial resolution of the available data”.

By next year, IRENA hopes to expand the datasets to include geothermal, bioenergy and marine energy.

IRENA was founded in 2009 to promote increased worldwide adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy. Abu Dhabi was elected as interim headquarters of the Agency, and ^the current Director-General is Adnan Amin, a Pakistani who was born and raised in Kenya.

There are currently 104 member states, with a further 55 countries either applicants for membership or signatories to IRENA.  China has recently announced its intention to join the agency.

Image of signatories to IRENA from IRENA

Looking for more ways to dive into renewable energy in the Middle East? Visit the 5th MENASOL Middle East & North Africa Solar Conference & Expo; 14-15 May, Dubai. Click here for the MENASOL website.

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A new report published by Green Tech Media (GTM) Research pins the surge from today’s near-negligible production on rapidly rising energy demand spurred by MENA economic expansion, population growth, and urbanization. It helps that the region is supersaturated with sunlight.

Factor in rising opposition to nuclear development and growing public awareness of the environmental sins of fossil fuels, and solar’s sunny reception makes perfect sense. Plus renewables, specifically concentrated solar (CSP) and photovoltaics (PV), would provide a secure domestic substitute for state-subsidized oil-generated electricity.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey are expected to account for 70 percent of MENA’s total demand; each nation has unique motivations and strategies.

Conservation of oil for export is driving Saudi’s solar targets: 16GW of PV and 25GW of CSP by 2030. Turkey’s swing towards solar is a defense against its tenuous reliance on imported Russian and Iranian gas.

Saudi production will be based on large-scale ground-mounted arrays and CSP plants.  Turkey will go with commercial and industrial rooftop PV segments.

In 2005, Turkey was the first MENA nation to establish a feed-in tariff (FIT), a limited program that failed to create adequate demand to attract large manufacturing. But with a retooled FIT in place and favorable renewable energy policies, Turkey’s predicted to experience significant PV demand.  The nation has a 2023 solar target of 3GW, a planned capacity that GTM believes they’ll significantly exceed.

Abu Dhabi is moving forward with Shams-1, the world’s largest single-unit (100MW) concentrating solar power plant. Qatar plans to install 1.8 GW of PV capacity by 2014 and Dubai aims to source 5% of its power supply from solar by 2030. Then there’s Abu Dhabi’s EU-backed Desertec project.

Jordan and Morocco also have solar ambitions.

Last December,  Jordan announced the kingdom’s first FIT. Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Commissioner Mohammad Hamid told pv-tech,“With rising international oil prices, the government has been looking for ways to reduce electricity demand and costs. We found that the best way to achieve both is by encouraging Jordanians to go solar.” ERC claims that solar could save individuals and small to medium sized businesses up to 70% on their monthly bills.

Intentionality is great, but implementation demands strong policies and reasonable regulatory frameworks. In a region experiencing dramatic political and social change, solar’s future remains dubious. 

The report was authored GTM Research analyst Scott Burger in collaboration with the Emirates Solar Industry Association.  Burger presented highlights at the World Future Energy Summit on January 16th, describing major stakeholders, overall market structure, and long term outlook of each solar market in the region.

The full report is
 available for purchase on the GTM website.

Top image via Shams Youtube Video

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“Due to the changed framework conditions, lower growth and strong price pressure in the solar markets, the company’s expectations for its solar energy activities have not been met,” Siemens said in a statement, according to Bloomberg.

Since prices for photovoltaic panels have plummeted in recent years, solar thermal is becoming increasingly less attractive for all but four major providers. BrightSource and Solar Reserve are still hanging tough in California, writes Forbes, as are Abengoa in Spain and Areva in France.

Areva has just lost a large uranium contract with the Kingdom of Jordan, however.

Solar thermal energy is generated by focusing sometimes hundreds of mirrors on steam-generating boilers that then power a turbine. And Solel’s parabolic troughs are essentially the dinosaurs of this kind of plant, since it still relies on parabolic trough technology that focus the sun on tubes of molten salt running through the mirrors.

Some solar thermal plants are still more energy efficient than photovoltaics, but it’s harder to provide energy storage, which utility companies require in order to ensure optimum stability.

But if Solel’s solar system is so shoddy, who will want to buy it? Maybe China, predicts Forbes, since they have been scouting out new solar opportunities.

:: Forbes

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Where’s a charger when you need one? My device-addicted household is always running short on chargers for cell phones and laptops and iPods. I plug in my phone and come back to find it’s migrated to someone’s Kindle. What’s the impact of all this techno-juicing on the environment? A co-worker just nabbed the coolest birthday gift: the Electree solar charger, a sculptural photovoltaic (PV) machine that will keep your gadgets energized in a fully renewable way.

Shaped like a bonsai tree, the 27 PV panels installed on its branches capture solar energy which is then stored in a 13,500 mAh battery (the equivalent of an iPad battery) located in its base.  A concealed USB connector and A/C outlet will feed your gizmos renewable energy while minimizing unsightly wires. And you can customize its sexy shape just like a real bonsai gardener:  Electree’s branches are fully rotatable.

French Designer Vivien Muller honed the concept over three years until Electree hit the market in 2011 via innovative fundraising site Ulule.  He needed 400 presales (at an initial price of about $370) to make production viable.  The sales goal was met, Electree went into manufacture, and the first units were shipped to early bird buyers last July.

Initial feedback’s been positive, but the largely American and European buyers have reported lackluster energy generation. The unit requires exposure to intense sunshine over consecutive days: not ideal if you live in northern countries.

Seems marketing would be better targeted to the Middle East.

Muller’s been gathering feedback from initial users and is using their comments to launch a series of product tests at the plant that manufactured the first prototypes.

They’ve developed a “solutions kit” to tackle improving connections between tree branches and a testing kit to verify that each solar panel and it’s branch are fully functional.  These sort of kinks would normally send buyers screaming for refunds, but on Ulule, consumers are more like investors and they seem to relish being part of ongoing product development.

American Will Stone was one of those initial investors.  On his YouTube channel he says, “I helped fund an art project called Electree back in September 2011 and after about 10 months of waiting, seeing updates, etc., it finally arrived yesterday July 9th, 2012.”  Will recorded his initial assembly of the Electree, his excitement is palpable in the 10-minute-long video.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/bhP-RX8IKU4[/youtube]

On Ulule, original products and projects are only funded if they reach their objective. Since the site’s launch in 2010, over 1,200 unique projects have been funded in 34 countries, supported by online users in 128 countries.  It’s a novel way to share great ideas and participate in making innovation palpable.

I’ll watch my friend’s test of his birthday gift with interest.  If the Jordan sun proves a proper companion, I think I’m in line for the next generation of Electree.

The site lists the price at 349 euros.

::Electree

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Maximum and minimum

Graft Architects has designed Vertical Village – a series of residential and office towers that has what looks to us like a futuristic skirt of photovoltaic panels. This concept achieves the dual ideal of mitigating excess solar gain inside the buildings, to keep energy needs to a minimum, and maximizing the amount of energy that the skirt of pv panels absorbs.

This is achieved by aligning the self-shaded program at the northern edge of the site along an east-west axis, which in turns reduces the penetration of low-angle sun, while positioning the solar panels so that they receive as much southern exposure as possible.

Other efforts to reduce energy loads include recycling energy or hot water collected on the solar roof back inside the building.

The ultimate mixed-use development

And what of the towers, each facing a different direction? “The residential and hotel buildings have been sliced and leaned to firstly create large scale focal points, giving a unique address to each slab, and also to create a powerful and constantly shifting skyline as one drives by,” the designers explained over on Arch Daily.

Meanwhile, beneath the skirt of panels are a series of dining, retail, and entertainment facilities that complete the ultimate mixed-use development, basically ensuring that no one living there will have to jump in their cars at all in order to meet their daily needs. Whether or not this is a good thing is still up for debate.

What architecture future do you want?

We want to hear from you: what does the future of architecture hold, particularly in Dubai, where building the biggest and baddest towers have been all the rage over the last decade or so? Will the Emirate follow Abu Dhabi’s example and incorporate a more sustainable approach to development? And what is sustainable anymore? Glass and steel? Or is there no such thing?

Give us a shout if you’re in the know.

:: Arch Daily

More on Gulf Architecture:

Green-Thumbed Journalist Nick Leech Defends Gulf Design

What Happened to Islam’s Environmentally-Friendly Architecture?

Mud Structures in the Muslim World: Spectacular and Sustainable

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