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thor
Heavy Crude
Joined: Jun 21, 2005
Posts: 451
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 Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 1:44 pm Post subject: Power from the Deserts |
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http://www.trecers.net/index.html :
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Feasibility of the DESERTEC Concept
The technologies that are needed to realise the DESERTEC concept are already developed and some of them have been in use for decades. HVDC transmission lines up toto 3 GW capacity have been deployed over long distances by ABB and Siemens for many years. In July 2007 Siemens accepted a bid to build a 5 GW HVDC System in China. At the World Energy Dialogue 2006 in Hanover speakers from both the companies just mentioned have confirmed that the implementation of a Euro-Supergrid and a EU-MENA-Connection is, technically, entirely feasible.
Solar thermal power plants have been in use commercially at Kramer Junction in California since 1985. New solar thermal power plants with a total capacity of more than 2000 MW are either planned, under construction, or already in operation. The Spanish government guarantees a feed-in tariff of about 26 EuroCent/kWh for 25 years and this has established favourable business conditions for CSP. Because of the higher solar radiation at good sites in the USA or MENA it is now possible to use lower rates in feed-in tariffs. The DLR has calculated that, if solar thermal power plants were to be constructed in large numbers in the coming decades, the estimated cost would come down to about 4-5 EuroCent/kWh.
In order to establish, by 2050, a capacity of 100 GW of exportable solar power in MENA, over and above the domestic needs of sun-belt countries, only a few governmental supporting measures would be sufficient to make the construction of the power plants and the necessary transmission grid more attractive to investors, both private and public. An approximate investment forecast for the TRANS-CSP scenario has been researched by the DLR (graphic on the right). |
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http://www.leonardo-energy.org/drupal/node/1485 :
| Quote: | | They have calculated that it would be feasible to build a total of fifty square kilometres of facilities in the desert capable of generating 100 GW |
Nuclear power plants can't keep up. There's not enough uranium to make this happen.
Last time I checked, the sun isn't going to run out of heat anytime soon. |
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KillTheHumans
Intermediate Crude
Joined: Sep 17, 2007
Posts: 801
Location: Rockies
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:06 pm Post subject: Re: Power from the Deserts |
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| thor wrote: |
Nuclear power plants can't keep up. There's not enough uranium to make this happen.
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Actually....there is. Australia is currently trying to find the limits to an ore body which constitutes about 20-25 years supply. GLOBAL supply. Noticed the huge drop in spot market price over the past 6 months? There is a reason for this... |
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cephalotus
Heavy Crude
Joined: Sep 18, 2007
Posts: 111
Location: Germany
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Tyler_JC
Moderator
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Joined: Sep 25, 2004
Posts: 4548
Location: Boston, MA
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:38 pm Post subject: Re: Power from the Deserts |
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| KillTheHumans wrote: | | thor wrote: |
Nuclear power plants can't keep up. There's not enough uranium to make this happen.
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Actually....there is. Australia is currently trying to find the limits to an ore body which constitutes about 20-25 years supply. GLOBAL supply. Noticed the huge drop in spot market price over the past 6 months? There is a reason for this... |
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"www.peakoil.com is the Myspace of the Apocalypse." |
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TheTurtle
Fission
Joined: May 14, 2005
Posts: 2123
Location: Along the banks of the muddy Mississippi
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:25 pm Post subject: Re: Power from the Deserts |
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| KillTheHumans wrote: |
Actually....there is. Australia is currently trying to find the limits to an ore body which constitutes about 20-25 years supply. GLOBAL supply. |
I don't mean to quibble, but doesn't that mean that there is only a finite supply? What happens after 25 years?
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“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” (Ted Perry) |
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yesplease
Fission
Joined: Oct 03, 2006
Posts: 2319
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:50 pm Post subject: Re: Power from the Deserts |
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| TheTurtle wrote: | | KillTheHumans wrote: |
Actually....there is. Australia is currently trying to find the limits to an ore body which constitutes about 20-25 years supply. GLOBAL supply. |
I don't mean to quibble, but doesn't that mean that there is only a finite supply? What happens after 25 years? |
The sun will only last for so many years too... It just depends on what time scale/use is being referred to.
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| Professor Membrane wrote: | | Not now son! I'm making...TOAST! |
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Grifter
Intermediate Crude
Joined: Mar 29, 2006
Posts: 842
Location: England
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:56 pm Post subject: Re: Power from the Deserts |
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This was being talked about on bbc radio 4 when I was in the car at about 9 - 9.20 pm tonight.
Can't find a link to the actual program, just thought I'd say. |
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TheTurtle
Fission
Joined: May 14, 2005
Posts: 2123
Location: Along the banks of the muddy Mississippi
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:56 pm Post subject: Re: Power from the Deserts |
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| yesplease wrote: | | The sun will only last for so many years too... It just depends on what time scale/use is being referred to. |
I might still be alive 25 years from now. Several billion years from now, probably not. 
_________________
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” (Ted Perry) |
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KillTheHumans
Intermediate Crude
Joined: Sep 17, 2007
Posts: 801
Location: Rockies
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:25 pm Post subject: Re: Power from the Deserts |
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| TheTurtle wrote: | | I don't mean to quibble, but doesn't that mean that there is only a finite supply? What happens after 25 years? |
The usual of course. We start a website called PeakUranium.Com, we pretend we'll all die without it, make up cool scenario's involving our neighbors and cannibalism, dream up scenario's whereby smart people like us live, everyone we don't like die's, etc etc.
Or....we find some more. Hubberts estimates of nuclear fuel was measured in thousands of years....I have a feeling we'll get into one of those "easy" uranium versus "hard" uranium type arguments, there will be new expert geologists who miss the peak uranium date by the odd century......
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