Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 10 Oct 09;
A DECADE from now, Africa could be Europe's powerhouse.
A €400 billion (S$825 billion) plan hopes to tap energy from the sun shining down on sub-Saharan Africa, to provide a sizeable chunk of power to places such as Britain, Germany and France, as well as countries in North Africa where the power plants will be located.
Called the Desertec project, it will be the most ambitious solar power effort to date, if it takes off. It will involve placing fields of mirrors in the deserts to gather solar rays to boil water.
The steam generated will churn turbines to provide electricity that can then be distributed via a network of pipes linking Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Desertec's 13 partners, ranging from banks to utility providers and companies supplying green technology such as Siemens, believe the Sahara could one day deliver 15 per cent of Europe's electricity.
'The plan represents a vision to produce large amounts of energy needed in the world,' said Dr Peter Hoeppe, of Munich Re, the giant reinsurance firm that hosted the project's launch in Germany in July.
He was in Singapore last week to speak about the threats that climate change poses to economic infrastructure around the world.
The project is still in the planning stage, but Dr Hoeppe, who heads the company's Geo Risks Research department, expects the first round of investments in the next three years.
Officials have yet to draw up a business plan or specify how it will be funded, but there is great potential for harnessing the intense sunlight from the desert.
The deserts around the world receive, in six hours, about 20 million gigawatt-hour of energy, which is equivalent to the world's yearly electricity consumption.
A similar project in the barren terrains of China, India and Central Asia could also power countries in the region.
Dr Jiang Fan, from the Technology Centre for Clean Energy at Singapore Po-lytechnic, said the project showed potential.
'The desert is an area no one uses, as opposed to a city, where the land can be expensive. The intensity and distribution of solar radiation in the desert are also up to 50 per cent better.'
But Desertec has not been without its detractors. Critics point to the high capital costs needed to build solar plants as well as the substantial investment required to lay the pipes that will pump electricity from the African deserts to Europe.
A news report earlier this year pointed out that Desertec would need 20 or more efficient, direct-current cables, each costing up to US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion), to transmit electricity to the north beneath the Mediterranean.
Dr Hoeppe concedes that solar energy can be up to five times more expensive than power from coal-fired plants. But he believes giant strides in research mean that, within the next decade, electricity from solar power will cost between 4 and 5 US cents per kilowatt-hour - equivalent to the cost of electricity generated from coal.
Spiralling fuel prices also mean the world is rapidly reaching a 'break-even point' between the cost of solar power and traditional power sources.
'The advantage of renewable energy is that it is not dependent on global oil prices. The fuel is free...it just needs the first investment and the repairs are minimal, restricted to cleaning the mirrors occasionally,' said Dr Hoeppe.
Regardless of the potential effects of global warming, he believes an 'energy revolution' is inevitable.
'With or without climate change, we will have to have an energy revolution. There are differences in opinion over how long the supply of oil will last...but it is just a question of years before oil production goes down and prices soar...and then we will need new forms of energy.
'In the long term, we have to bank on wind, geothermal and solar energy.'
