Read at : Google Alert – desertification
Here Comes the Sun: Tunisia to Energize Europe
Vivian Norris
Phd, Based in Paris-Globalization Studies
In the desert of Southern Tunisia, a group of renewable energy entrepreneurs, NUR Energie Ltd, and their Tunisian joint venture partner, Top Oilfield Services, are creating what may just be the most ambitious solar power renewable energy project to date. Along with the endorsement of the Desertec Foundation, NUR Energie has launched the TuNur project to export solar energy from North Africa to Europe, linking Tunisia to Italy via a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Cable and into the Italian electricity grid in order to supply a constant 2,000 MW of electricity. When completed, TuNur is set to be the world’s largest solar energy project. And with the menacing reality of climate change, limited traditional energy reserves and memories of recent nuclear and oil disasters, renewable energy is no longer the choice of idealists, but a simple necessity. We as a human race cannot afford to not go full speed ahead with projects such as this.
What is so unique about this project is that it is a true South-North collaboration which is taking a profound look at not only the socioeconomic benefits the collaboration can bring (the TuNur projects that the project will create an estimated 20,000 much needed jobs in Tunisia), but also taking into consideration environmental impacts which have affected the technology chosen (CSP solar) and the overall design of the project. In order to not add to the desertification process, TuNur will make use of very little water and will recycle in a closed system the steam produced by the process of the array of mirrors reflecting sunlight to a tower storage unit thereby turning the Sahara into a resource which can drive both the local economies as well as satisfy growing demand for low carbon electricity.
(continued)
