Every year in late November, it is the same thing: the very respected International Energy Agency publishes its World Energy Outlook. This year’s edition is interesting in more than one aspect.
Morocco
Mosques are going solar too
I previously wrote that there are solar panels on the Vatican and some churches. Likewise, I reported that Christians are urged by to act on climate by Pope Francis. Now, Muslims are also starting to cover their mosques with solar panels too.
Morocco goes forward on cleantech
It seems Morocco has done a lot in its own energy transition. As RTCC reported the country should be held up as a ‘poster child’ for effective green policymaking according to the World Bank’s top climate official, Rachel Kyte. This occurs as the country has recently cut its fossil fuels subsidies because the government could afford … Read more
Desertec abandons Sahara solar energy export dream
The Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) have been been the subject of many articles here. The huge project was due to generate large amounts of renewable energy from solar and wind farms in Northern Africa and bring it to Europe.
Criticism had been important as the feasability of generating up to 100 gigawatts of electricity in the Sahara to a cost of 400 billion euros (around $530 billion) was questioned.
A lethal blow to the project might have been the withdrawal in November 2012 of one of the main stakeholder, Siemens.
Morocco wants 42 percent renewables by 2020
If you think that solar energy is just fad dedicated to rich nations, read on : Morocco has a ” goal of increasing installed renewable energy capacity to 42 per cent by 2020 and becoming a renewable energy industry leader. “ The African Development Bank Group has been demonstrating its support to scaling up renewable … Read more
Worth an article – My July 2012 tweets
I have been committed since January 2007 to bring you each month a selection of the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector.
However, I don’t blog as much as I would like to and generally write around 25 posts per month. But many more news are worth reading. This is why I use Twitter to share dozens of news that are worth your time.
I believe it offers a good complement to this website. So if you are on Twitter and like this selection, don’t hesitate to start following me.
How Africa is embracing cleantech
I have recently noted that cleantech is booming globally, but what does it mean for Africa ? In today’s post I will try to give a few answers to this crucial question as still 600 million Africans have no access to electricity.
To a study titled Mega Trends in Africa: A bright vision for the growing continent ” Investment in renewable power in Africa is set to grow from a total of US$3.6-billion in 2010 to $57-billion by 2020. “
I have found several other articles on cleantech in Africa in the past few weeks. Let’s review the main ones.
Lifestyle tip : ditch the sodas, drink tea
Not so long ago, I hated tea and saw it like a drink for elders or respected Englishmen (or my parents…). But with time I evolved, mostly thanks to my discovery of green tea with mint in Morocco.
Now there is hardly a day where I don’t drink a pint of tea. Darjeeling and Earl Grey are my favorite with the aforementioned green tea. Tea has many advantages over sodas
Daryl wrote over two years ago a compelling article on why you should stop drinking sodas. It’s bad for your health, your wallet and the environment.
Morocco to build five solar plants by 2020
It is no news for you if you subscribed to this website : solar thermal alone could provide up to a quarter of global electricity by 2050. The use of molten salt could enable our civilization to store solar electricity for up to seven hours.
Morocco is ideally located to harvest all this energy as the average sunshine there is over 3,000 hours per year ( over 8 hours a day ). The Kingdom will build for $9 billion (6.6 billion euros) up to 2 GW of capacity.
This will be brought by five different plants of both solar photovoltaic and thermal and will answer up to 42 percent of the national need by 2020.
Desertec gets international support
According to Enerzine [Fr] and other sources the Desertec Project is getting international support as several companies from Europe, America and Africa are joining the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii). The US company First Solar was the first to join in and five more companies from Morocco, Tunisia, France, Spain and Italy followed suit. Desertec is … Read more
World Bank funds solar projects in North Africa
The World Bank via its Clean Technology Fund is investing $750 million (522 million euros) in eleven concentrating solar plants in the Middle East and North Africa region. This is due to spur additional investments worth $4.85 billion.
These projects are due to add nearly a gigawatt of capacity to local grids within three to five years in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia and would triple the current concentrated solar power (CSP) capacity.
I wonder if this could be a significant boost to the DESERTEC project as it is exactly about building renewable energy facilities in these countries.
Morocco investigating the nuclear option
Morocco has been for some time having a look at nuclear to answer its energy needs.
This leading economy in North Africa indeed sees its electricity demand growing by around eight percent per year.
Let us review the main figures about Morocco. On a personal note, it is a country where I have been enjoying myself and a proud nation with great people. As I got friends coming from this place, I take the opportunity to greet them here.