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Germany Looks to North Africa's
Untapped Solar Thermal Potential
Flabeg has recently developed a mirror that can reflect
93 percent of the sun's rays.
by Jane Burgermeister, Contributing Writer
www.renewableenergyaccess.com
Vienna, Austria [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]
A study by the German Aerospace Center estimated that
harnessing the sun's energy falling on just 6,000 square
kilometers of desert in North Africa would supply energy
equivalent to the entire oil production of the Middle East
of 9 billion barrels a year.
The study calculated that solar thermal power plants could
supply 68 percent of North Africa's as well as Europe's
electricity by 2050.
One company planning to take advantage of this untapped
potential is Flabeg, a German-based manufacturer of
parabolic trough mirrors for solar thermal power plants. The
company recently developed a mirror that can reflect 93
percent of the sun's rays.
The improved mirror can concentrate 99% of the sun's
radiation onto an absorber tube with a diameter of 70 mm or
less.
Flabeg said that it expects to sell its high precision
mirrors in Spain and North Africa as the solar thermal power
plant market starts to take off in Europe.
The company is set to deliver 210,000 of the high precision
mirrors to the 50 megawatt (MW) solar thermal power plant
Andasol II, in Spain—the biggest in Europe—by the end of
June 2008.
Flabeg has already equipped the 50 MW Andasol I solar
thermal plant with 210,000 RP 3 mirrors.
"We increased the reflectivity of our mirrors by using
better raw glass quality," Thomas Deinlein from Flabeg told
RenewableEnergyAccess.com. "The more transparent the glass,
the higher the reflectivity value. We use an extremely
transparent, white type of glass."
It is estimated that a 50 MW solar power plant can generate
5 million kilowatt-hours more of electricity for every extra
1 percent of sunlight that is collected by solar mirrors.
Europe's first commercially operating solar thermal tower
plant went into operation in Sevilla, Spain generating 11 MW
of electricity in April. Plans are in place for building
more solar power plants able to generate a total of 300 MW
of electricity, enough to supply the city of Sevilla.
Also, European research organizations, including the German
Aerospace Center, are testing different types of solar
thermal technology at an experimental solar thermal plant
called the Plataforma Solar de Almeria in Spain.
In addition, the German Aerospace Center has built an
experimental solar thermal tower power plant in Julich,
Germany, that is due to come into operation in 2008 and that
will be able to generate 1.5 MW of electricity.
In Julich, 16,000 mē of mirrors will track the sun and
concentrate solar radiation onto a tower to heat up the air,
generate steam and drive a turbine.
The Julich plant will be used to test solar thermal tower
power plant technology with a view to developing prototypes
for 10 to 50 MW power plants that can be built in South
Europe and North Africa.
The German Aerospace Center plan envisages building solar
thermal power plants of between 50 and 200 MW in size in
different locations across North Africa. Cables to transmit
electricity from North Africa to Europe have already been
built under the sea.
If this vision becomes a reality, it is estimated that North
Africa can produce 2 to 3 times more solar thermal
electricity than Europe.
Jane Burgermeister is a freelance writer based in Vienna,
Austria.
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