CSP desert venture
Supply: El Pais (Translated by Google from French)
Between the deposits on the highway that results in Rjim Maatoug, alongside the Algerian border and 120 kilometers from Kébili, within the south of Tunisia, solely hydrocarbon tankers undergo a continuous ballet. This space, the place similar-looking cities are mixed, surrounded by a palm tree with a size of 25 kilometers, can solely be accessed with the permission of the Ministry of Protection. “Earlier than it was a desert. We constructed this new oasis with the problem of countering the advance of the sand dunes and with the aim of settling nomadic communities”, defined a soldier current within the space.
In entrance of those palm timber, launched on the finish of the Eighties with the assistance of European funds—particularly these of the Italian Company for Improvement Cooperation (AICS)—, a large photo voltaic plant constructed by a Tunisian firm is predicted to see the sunshine of day. -British TuNur, as confirmed by the planning paperwork consulted by this newspaper. “Photo voltaic and wind power are limitless, and Tunisia has an abundance of each,” says the entity on its new web site. The aim of TuNur, which plans to provide 4.5 GWh of electrical energy for export to Italy, France and Malta, is to “provide low-cost electrical energy to 2 million houses in Europe”, by transmission line that may join Tunisia to Europe by Italy, and thus cut back European CO₂ emissions by 5 million tons per yr.
Established in Tunisia since late 2011, TuNur has repeatedly introduced the approaching development of what could be the world’s largest new concentrated solar energy (CSP) plant, however thus far it has not materialized. Even supposing many industrialists think about the venture “unreal” because of the very excessive prices, in August 2022, the CEO of the corporate introduced that he’s contemplating an preliminary funding of 1,500 million euros for to put in the venture.
For Ali Kanzari, the primary advisor of TuNur in Tunisia and president of the Tunisian Photovoltaic Commerce Union Chamber (CSPT), “enterprise in Europe is strategic and shouldn’t be restricted to dates and olive oil.” In his opinion, what’s lacking is, above all, “the political will”. “Tunisia is within the middle of the Mediterranean, we are able to meet the rising demand of Europe for inexperienced power. And, nonetheless, we proceed to see our desert with out benefiting from it,” he mentioned.
TuNur is a continuation of the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii). The venture, broadly criticized for its extractivist designs, is meant to “change the world of power with the best concept of the twenty first century”: harnessing photo voltaic power from the most important desert on the planet, the Sahara. Industrialists hope to put in a community of concentrated photo voltaic thermal energy vegetation in North Africa and the Center East to cowl greater than 15% of Europe’s electrical energy wants by 2050, permitting European economies to develop “which environmental stability”. . Because of inner disagreements and lack of funding, your entire venture was by no means realized and was deserted in 2012.
However the want to help the switch of power to Europe with solar energy from North Africa stays, and is now revived by the present international power disaster linked to the struggle in Ukraine. Within the wake of a chilly and darkish winter, Europe is seeking to break power chains by diversifying sources of provide. For a number of months now, it has been eyeing the assets of its neighbors to the south of the Mediterranean. Algeria, the main exporter of pure fuel in Africa, is now the main provider to Italy, forward of Russia, the place it can carry nearly 20 billion cubic meters of fuel by the Transmed pipeline as of early 2022 .
As the worth of a barrel of oil rises, European nations additionally search to speed up the transition of their power in the direction of renewable power, which has turn into inexpensive within the financial system. In June 2022, the EU introduced that it’ll improve its targets to 40% by 2030. Nonetheless, the outdated continent doesn’t intend to satisfy all of the inexperienced power wants of its territory and could be very within the photo voltaic potential of the North African neighbor. . Up to now, a number of mega photo voltaic plant tasks have been developed, with the goal of exporting electrical energy to Europe by submarine cables.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco pushes for extra CSP in Midelt after profitable operation of NOOR I,II,III
From North Africa to Europe
Tunisia will not be the one North African nation planning {an electrical} interconnection with Europe. In latest months, numerous bulletins for the development {of electrical} interconnection cables between the 2 shores of the Mediterranean have elevated.
In Morocco, the British firm Xlinks introduced the development of the longest maritime cable community on the planet —3,800 km—by 2027, and the set up of a ten.5 GWh solar energy plant to produce electrical energy to seven million individuals. British households, that’s, 8% of the nation’s electrical energy wants. Egypt, which goals to turn into an power hub between Europe, Africa and the Center East, has additionally began constructing a maritime electrical interconnection line with Cyprus and Greece. Algeria toohas plans to produce clear electrical energy to Italy and past to Europe by a brand new submarine cable.
Regardless of the accountable and reassuring discourse of the businesses, these megaprojects are usually not included within the direct affect of the populations and their native assets. With solely 3% of Tunisian electrical energy generated from renewables, and the nation struggling to satisfy its local weather targets amid a monetary disaster, many overseas personal buyers are coveting its photo voltaic assets. And the widespread export of photo voltaic power means the implementation of huge tasks.
Benjamin Schütze, researcher of worldwide relations on the College of Freiburg, Germany, and writer of a report on the socio-economic affect of photo voltaic power within the Center East and North Africa, says: “I’m very skeptical about its contribution tasks on the native stage”. He additionally continued that “this deterministic illustration of the desert is a method of outsourcing the European power transition and duties within the face of the local weather disaster. That is a straightforward answer, as a result of Europe doesn’t intend to vary its consumption, however intends to construct mega vegetation to supply inexperienced electrical energy, which could be very problematic”.
Morocco, for its half, needs to turn into a Mediterranean platform for renewable power. Thus, in February 2016, the most important photo voltaic thermal energy plant on the planet, Noor, was inaugurated in Ouarzazate, constructed with robust encouragement from the Moroccan monarchy. The nation, whose electrical energy market was liberalized within the Nineties, has thus turn into the nation that produces essentially the most electrical energy from renewable power (19% in 2019) within the area.
In Ouarzazate, the solar’s rays could be seen in a whole lot of brilliant bands that attain an space of 3,000 hectares on the foot of the Excessive Atlas. Locals within the area are involved, nonetheless, that the expertise used to generate energy (referred to as CSP) requires a number of water. In a really dry setting: in accordance with the World Financial institution, Morocco suffers from “structural water stress”, and the Ouarzazate area is likely one of the driest within the nation. Within the Dades valley, which runs from Ouarzazate east to Tineghir and the Todra Gorges, Youssef, a farmer, described a dire scenario: “Our valley is about to be destroyed, all our water is within the dam to cowl the demand of the solar energy plant. This venture is a catastrophe and there’s no choice”, he mentioned, as he walked among the many dry palms of an historic oasis.
The TuNur venture, 9 instances the scale of Morocco, is deliberate within the southern area of Tunisia, the place the oasis system is already affected by droughts and poor water administration. In response to figures from the Nakhla affiliation, which works with farmers in Douz (Kébili), the area presently makes use of 209% of its water assets. From what they mentioned, TuNur guarantees to contain extra native corporations within the development of the venture – 60% in accordance with Ali Kanzari. In his phrases, the corporate intends to create its personal electrical energy grid, which will likely be managed by the Tunisian Electrical energy and Fuel Firm (STEG), which has a monopoly on electrical energy transmission within the nation. The latter will thus obtain royalties, which for this debtor entity are of nice financial curiosity.
The corporate additionally guarantees to create greater than 20,000 direct and oblique jobs in a area the place the variety of candidates immigrating to Europe is rising. However within the case of those megaprojects, “most of those jobs are usually not sustainable, as a result of most of them are solely wanted for the development and start-up section of the tasks”, highlights the latest report of the Observatory Tunisian Economic system.
Ali Kanzari, the chief adviser of TuNur in Tunisia, lamented: “We’ve got a desert the place we are able to do nothing.” For him and the numerous personal and public gamers within the renewable power sector, the desert is nothing greater than an unlimited untapped expanse, with little exploited potential. Aymen Amayed, an agricultural coverage researcher, disagrees. He analysed: “This narrative in regards to the ‘desert land’ is a direct legacy of French colonization, when the colonial energy needed to counter the opposition of the southern tribes by seizing their earth.” .
