Re:Vast solar power plant at the Moroccan desert
by mikeyouse on Monday December 05, 2016 @08:26PM
(#13111514)
There are a few things that aren't quite right here.. Primarily that Europe and the Sahara have equal sunlight availability.
The Moroccan plant is in Ouarzazate, which has an average annual irradiance of ~2,200 kWh/sq. meter.[1] Southern Spain is the sunniest part of Europe and the best locations there are closer to 1,800 kWh/sq. meter.[2] That's over 20% more solar energy in Morocco.
The other bit that's not really accurate is about Transmission losses. It's about 400 miles from Ouarzazate to Gilbatrar. Modern HVDC lines have losses of ~3.5% over 1,000km, so call it 3% for this project.[3] That's extremely reasonable for an energy project.
[1] - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/SolarGIS...
[2] - http://www.mappery.com/maps/Solar-Radiation-Map-of-Spain.png
[3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current#Ad...
Temperature isn't a factor, even overcast isn't that much of a factor, especially for residential installations.
Thermal is more affected by overcast due to the light being more diffused but still doable, southern Europe will be good for thermal solar, all of Europe will be good for PV, and central and northern Europe is very good for hydro and wind (anything on the golf stream is excellent for wind)
There is very little need to import electricity from across the med, the loss in transmission alone not to mention the instability in the region makes this entire deal pretty silly.
If nothing else there is no reason to replace one type of mono-economy that keeps oppressive regimes in power and forces the west to balance the region on the head of a pin more often than not through coercion with another one.