Solar solution

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The demand for electricity is dramatically increasing in many parts of the world. The estimated global growth of electricity consumption is 2.7% per year; in the Middle East, annual increases are expected to average about 3% until 2030.

As environmental issues squeeze the conventional development of electricity supply systems based on hydrocarbon fuels, alternative sources of energy are becoming mature enough to acquire high shares of the market. In recent years there have been important advancements in both the research and use of renewable energy. Solar energy is currently a US $11 billion (AED40 billion) worldwide market and interest in this sector is increasing in many areas of the world, especially those where sunshine is abundant, such as the Gulf region.

Methods to convert solar energy to electricity have been developing over many decades and the research of Lebanese inventor Hassan Kamel Al-Sabbah who died in New York in 1935 is proof of how old this dream is. Today things are starting to look much brighter for the solar power sector and the list of projects being undertaken throughout the world is growing.

Huge solar power plants are now being developed in Europe and the United States of America (USA). The European Commission (EC) foresees at least 1GWe implemented in Europe by the year 2010 and after this year, the World Bank (WB) predicts a cost reduction in the production of solar power to below 6 US cents/kWh, which is very promising for its future use.

The difference between projects supported by the EC and those supported by the WB is that the EC only sponsors pure solar plants, whereas the WB focuses on the integration of solar into combined-cycle plants in sunny, developing countries. In addition to governments and international development agencies, private investors and commercial lenders are slowly beginning to see the opportunities of solar power.

There are three major factors currently stimulating investments in solar power:

• Rising fuel costs - with over 80% of today's energy produced from fossil fuels, high oil and gas prices are making renewable energy more competitive in the power market;

• Environmental concerns - a byproduct of burning fossil fuels is carbon dioxide, perhaps the greatest contributor to global warming. Fears about this phenomenon have triggered public and political demands for renewable energy;

• Engineering advances - in 1980 the cost of generating solar power with silicon cells was around US $30/W (AED110/W), today it averages $3-4/W. New technology currently being applied is expected to bring the cost down to below $1/W.

Solar technologies

Several different technologies are now available for the harnessing of solar power. The most developed of these are:

• Parabolic trough solar electric generating system (SEGS);

• Central receivers power plant;

• Solar pond power plant;

• Photovoltaic technology;

The first three of these come under the banner of solar thermal (ST) technology. In general, they use a collector to convert sunlight into heat energy. Photovoltaic (PV) technology turns sunlight directly into electricity by means of absorbent semiconductors. In both cases, solar energy has been confirmed as a reliable and proven technology for producing clean energy.

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