2050: For $400 Billion, Solar Energy Can Provide 2/3's Of US Electricity

By Loyd Eskildson

'Plugging Into the Sun' by George Johnson in National Geographic, Sept. 2009 tells of 182,000 gently curved mirrors lined up in 760 arrays spread across 250 acres in Nevada that focus sunlight on long-steel pipes filled with circulating oil, heating it up to 750 degrees F. The steam generated produces as much as 64 MW (14,000 households). The plant belongs to Acciona (Spanish co.) and the mirrors were made in Germany. On a clear summer day with the sun directly overhead about 21% of the sun's energy is converted to electricity. A 30% federal tax credit helped offset its construction costs; motivation also came from a state deadline requiring utilities in Nevada to generate 20% of their power from renewable sources by 2015.
 
Efforts to further lower costs of solar power from steam generators such as this one include making

mirrors from lightweight polymers instead of glass, and implementing methods of storing power for release at night. One way of accomplishing the latter is through using heat during the day to melt salt and store it until evening; this is already in operation at a site in Spain. The Solana Generating Station in Arizona (also Spanish built) will also use the same technology. When it goes online in 2012, three square miles of parabolic troughs will produce 280 MW for Phoenix-Tucson. (Heliostats operate similarly, except the sunlight is concentrated on a sphere and doesn't need long-steel pipes to transport the hot oil. The 10 MW demonstration facility at Daggett, CA. produced an eerie star-like glow when it was operated.)
 
Solar panels convert sunlight directly into electricity, but are expensive and provide efficiency of only 10-20%. Layering different semiconductors to capture different colors from sunlight has produced 41% efficiency - at a cost of $10,000/square cm. Thin-film solar cells (10% efficiency) cost about $1/watt - close to competitiveness with fossil fuel. Both the U.S. (Solar First) and China are competitive in manufacturing these films.
 
Germany is the largest producer of photovoltaic power in the world.
 
Man's power needs in 2020 are expected to reach 20 terawatts (TW; tera = trillion). The energy of sunshine on the Earth's land mass is 120 thousand TW. Experts believe renewable resources could provide 975,000 TWH, with 76% coming from solar. Solar now produces only 0.02% of the earth's total electricity. One expert believes the sun can provide two-thirds of U.S. electricity by 2050 for about $400 billion - including high-efficiency power transmission lines. Comparisons: Hoover Dam - 2,080 MW; Palo Verde Nuclear Plant (outside Phoenix - largest in the U.S.) - 3,200 MW. The West Texas 36,000 acre wind farm (one of the largest in the U.S.) will produce 600 MW of electricity beginning in 2011; its 240 turbines will be made in China, and receive a $450 million stimulus grant.

Loyd Eskildson is retired from a life of computer programming, teaching economics and finance, education and health care administration, and cross-country truck driving.  He's now a reviewer for Basil & Spice.

President Barack Obama's Grandmother Joins the 'Solar Generation' in Kenya China Spends $115 Billion On Foreign Acquisitions, $4B In Afghanistan

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The must-read solutions book — “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis ...

asked me (and several others) to suggest three books to read ahead of the Copenhagen conference.  Of those, they then asked me to review Gore’s new book, Our Choice:  A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis:

When your last work led to an Oscar and Nobel Prize, anticipation is high on the sequel. And former US Vice President Al Gore’s new book delivers. Our Choice, due out in November, is a wonderfully readable treatise on climate solutions.Whereas An Inconvenient Truth framed the crisis that climate negotiations are tackling, this followup spells out what needs to be done.

Based on 30 of Gore’s ‘Solutions Summits’ as well as one-on-one discussions with leading experts across multiple disciplines, the book aims, in Gore’s words, “to gather in one place all of the most effective solutions that are available now”. Gore naturally focuses on energy, the source of most anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and discusses many underappreciated strategies such as concentrated solar thermal power and cogeneration. He also devotes a full chapter to soil, a major carbon sink that is gradually degrading. Farming strategies for restoring soil carbon are described, including biochar, a porous charcoal that can potentially enhance the soil sink while providing a source of low-carbon power. And like its PowerPoint-based predecessor, Our Choice is replete with lush photos and simple but powerful charts. This [is] a must-read book for those who want a primer on all the key solutions countries will be considering at Copenhagen.

I was at one the Solutions Summit, as long-time readers know (see “My Al Gore story“).   I was interviewed by Newsweek about that Summit for their cover story:

Gore assigned each speaker at the summits a half dozen or so questions: Is nuclear power a viable solution? How can new photovoltaic technologies enter the market? He moderated every discussion, and no one remembers him ever glancing at his iPhone during even the most eye-glazing PowerPoint slides (”differentiation of value chain strategies”). Every panel at the New York meetings ran late, recalls Joseph Romm, who oversaw the Department of Energy’s renewables program from 1995 to 1998, as Gore asked question after question. “It was a fire hydrant of information,” says Romm, and it taught even experts things they didn’t know “about the latest technologies and strategies for clean energy.” Gore also hosted a reception afterward, where he betrayed no doubt that everyone would find everything as fascinating as he did. “Have Tim tell you all about soil carbon!” he said to one scientist. “Gore bothers to come talk to us,” says climatologist Gavin Schmidt of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “Most other politicians are too busy: ‘Just give us the talking points.’ He’s the only politician who’s interested in the nuts and bolts of the science—and the only one who knows what a hydroxyl radical is.”

[Note:  I typically say I helped oversee the DOE's energy efficiency and renewables program from 1995 to 1998, as principal deputy assistant secretary and then acting assistant secretary.  I was in charge of technology and market analysis for the office during much of that time.]

Like Gore, I learned a lot from the summits.  Here is what I wrote in January 2008:

For the last three days I attended a small climate solutions summit hosted by the former Vice President and current Nobel Laureate. It was off-the-record, so I can’t report on presentations directly, but they have made me a lot smarter about the latest technologies and strategies for clean energy, which will inform my blogging this year on climate solutions. I will say now as an aside that I have become much more bullish on the potential for large-scale solar photovoltaics as a result of attending these meetings. The VP asked me to speak for seven minutes on hydrogen at dinner Wednesday. Before dinner, I gave him a copy of the brand-new paperback edition of — warning, shameless product placement — Hell and High Water. He looked it over for a few minutes and said, deadpan,

I have only one problem with this book — this blurb on the back here that says, “If you buy only one book about global warming, make it Hell and High Water.” I just can’t agree with that.

When he introduced me that night, he repeated the line to great laughter.

BTW, in case it wasn’t obvious from his movie, the VP has a terrific sense of humor — and not just in his delivery timing of canned jokes, but in quick, impromptu one liners, like the one above, many of them self-deprecating (one of the speakers from a web-based company thanked him for his work accelerating the Internet, and he said something like, “You heard I had something to do with the internet?”).

And in case this wasn’t obvious from his movie, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things related to climate, energy, science, and technology.

I didn’t realize until I read the Newsweek piece that the VP had a similar reaction to the PV panel:

By all accounts, Gore was open to changing positions he brought to the summits. He originally thought that concentrated solar thermal power, in which the sun heats liquids that then power an electric generator, is superior to photovoltaics, in which sunlight produces electricity directly (PVs are the solar panels sprouting on rooftops these days). But “the PV industry surprised people over the last three years with the speed at which costs dropped,” says Cornelius, who is now at Hudson Clean Energy, a private-equity firm. Gore came around. “We are at or near a threshold beyond which photovoltaics will actually have a cost advantage” over concentrated solar as well as fossil fuels, Gore writes. He likes the fact that they can be deployed in small installations—those rooftops—whereas solar thermal projects are immense; he’s impressed that the price of photovoltaics is dropping while their efficiency is rising, thanks to new materials and manufacturing techniques. “Photovoltaics are a prime example of where the developmental pathway had a big impact on my conclusions,” Gore said at his home last month. “The rate of cost reductions and increases in efficiency for PVs is very impressive. PVs probably overtakes concentrated solar thermal within the next half year.”

I’m not certain one can directly compare PV and solar thermal.  And I still think solar thermal will deliver more kilowatt-hours this century than any other form of low carbon electricity — see Concentrated solar thermal power Solar Baseload — a core climate solution — particularly because it is so much cheaper and efficient to store thermal energy than electricity, and there are no obvious production bottlenecks for CSP.  But this summit did convince me to include a full wedge of PV in “How the world can (and will) stabilize at 350 to 450 ppm: The full global warming solution,” along with 3 wedges of CSP.

The Newsweek article is by Sharon Begley, a journalist who definitely gets global warming — see Newsweek’s Science Editor explains why climate change is “even worse than we feared” and how “a consensus has developed during IPY that the Greenland ice sheet will disappear.”

And for those who want to learn about soils and biochar, the book has a good chapter:

Gore loves plants and soils as only a former farm boy can (well, a summertime farm boy: as a kid he spent the school year in Washington, where his father was a senator). He regales you with numbers: more CO2 is emitted from burning and destroying forests—20 to 23 percent of the annual total—than from all the world’s cars and trucks; only by the 1980s did CO2 from fossil fuels overtake that from deforestation, which accounts for 40 percent of the CO2 increase since the 1800s.

The potential for soils to absorb more of the CO2 that our utilities, factories, and vehicles spew poses a dilemma for Gore, one of two where his scientific and political instincts collide. With better management, soils could sequester much more carbon than they do now. The question is how much more. Soils scientist Rattan Lal of Ohio State University was surprised to get a call last summer (”Vice President Gore would like to talk to you”) that began, “I have 15 or 20 questions about soils and climate for you.” Lal calculates that if more farmers adopted mulching, no-till farming, and the use of cover crops and manure, 3,700 million acres worldwide could sequester 1 gigaton per year of CO2, roughly 12 percent of annual global emissions. Other experts are even more sanguine. “If we feed the biology and manage grasslands appropriately, we could sequester as much carbon as we emit,” says Timothy LaSalle, CEO of the Rodale Institute, who presented at two summits. The political clash is this: if you tell people soils can be managed to suck up lots of our carbon emissions, it sounds like a get-out-of-jail-free card, and could decrease what little enthusiasm there is for reducing those emissions—as one of Gore’s assistants told LaSalle in asking him to dial down his estimate. (He didn’t.)

To his credit, Gore sides with the science, letting the political chips fall where they may. He writes that soils could sequester an additional 15 percent of annual global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. That could cut 50 parts per million of CO2 from the atmosphere over the next 50 years. (We are now at 387, up from 280 before the industrial era, with 450 ppm or even less a dangerous level.) To encourage changes in agriculture that would foster carbon sequestration, Gore advocates moving away from price supports and toward paying farmers for “how much carbon they can put into and keep in their soil,” he says. Paying farmers to sequester carbon might jump-start the use of biochar, which Gore calls “one of the most exciting new strategies for restoring carbon to depleted soils, and sequestering significant amounts of CO2.” Biochar, which he learned about during a 1989 trip to the Amazon, is basically porous charcoal. Made by burning switch grass, corn husks, and other waste, it can absorb CO2 like a charcoal filter in a cigarette absorbs gases. Gore estimates that biochar could sequester 40 percent of annual CO2 emissions.

Begley notes one especially unexpected chapter in the book:

But because of one sentence, and one chapter, it does surprise. The chapter is an astute analysis of the psychological barriers that keep most Americans from taking the threat of climate change seriously, his acknowledgment that emotion, not just reason, drives the decisions people make. The sentence is this: “Simply laying out the facts won’t work.”

… Gore is a canny-enough politician to know that change of this magnitude takes time, and that politics tends to trump science. A new poll by the Pew Research Center found sharp declines in the numbers of Americans who believe there is solid evidence that the world is warming (57 percent, compared with 71 percent in April 2008), and in how many believe it is because of human activity (36 percent vs. 47 percent). Gore blames this on the boatloads of money the coal and oil industries have spent to muddy the science and confuse the public…. His favorite quote in Our Choice is from the philosopher Theodor Adorno (1903–1969): “The conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power … has attacked the very heart of the distinction between true and false.”

The piece concludes with Gore’s native optimism:

“You know, the political system is [like climate] also nonlinear,” Gore says. “I’ve been waiting a long time for that tipping point,” when politicians and the public recognize the threat of climate change and act to avert it. “But I think we’re closer than ever. Reality does have a way of knocking on the door.”

Walking back through the house, I ask Gore again whether he believes the sanguine vision of Our Choicewill come to be. He points to solar panels on his roof, and to his driveway, 300 feet beneath which seven geothermal wells gather the planet’s warmth to heat and cool his house. “I have to,” he says.

Our Choice is really the anti-Superfreakonomics.  I’m sure it will be widely attacked by the deniers and delayers, so no doubt I’ll be blogging about it more this month.  The bottom line is that besides being informative, Our Choice is a truly beautiful book page after page, and I highly recommend it, particularly for those who want a broad overview of the key strategies for preserving a livable climate.

Link to original post

More renewable energy sources added to Refit

By INGI SALGADO Biomass, biogas and three varieties of solar power technology were on Friday added to the list of renewable energy sources that qualify for feed-in tariffs to be paid by Eskom.

The tariffs, known in South Africa as Refit, are set to top up earnings of independent power producers (IPPs). They are determined by the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa).

Nersa announced the second phase of Refit on Friday, after approving its first round of tariffs in March. But the regulator deferred the release of a generic power purchase agreement between Eskom and renewable energy IPPs to the end of the month.

There are now nine renewable energy technologies for which feed-in tariffs have been set in South Africa.

The latest tariffs are R3.13 a kilowatt-hour for concentrating solar power trough without storage; R3.94 for grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems producing more than 1 megawatt; R1.18 for solid biomass; 96c for biogas; and R2.31 for concentrating solar power with six hours of storage.

Concentrating solar photovoltaics without storage would not be subsidised because of its high economic cost, Nersa said. An earlier draft for the second-phase Refit had proposed a feed-in tariff for this technology of R5.48 a kilowatt-hour.

Most of the tariffs set last week are in line with the initial draft, except for the price that will be offered to large producers of on-grid power from solar photovoltaics, which dropped from R4.49 a kilowatt-hour in the first proposal.

In March, Nersa announced feed-in tariffs for wind (R1.25 a kilowatt-hour), small hydro (94c), landfill gas (90c) and concentrated solar power trough with six hours of storage capacity (R2.10).

Technologies that have been excluded from the Refit are wave energy, tidal energy and geothermal technologies, which are currently considered to be non-commercial but may be included as costs decline.

In its reasons for its decision, Nersa on Friday projected the costs of various generation technologies over the coming two decades.

It estimated that the cost of generating electricity from coal would more than triple from 51.9c a kilowatt-hour this year to R1.66 in 2030, while the cost of power from nuclear sources would increase from 72c a kilowatt-hour to R1.76.

Meanwhile, the cheapest renewable generation technology in two decades would be landfill gas at 75c a kilowatt-hour, down from 90c currently, Nersa forecast. The next cheapest source would be biogas at nearly 87c a kilowatt-hour, against 93c currently.

Wind and biomass were projected to be the next cheapest in 2030 at about 89c a kilowatt-hour, down from R1.25 and R1.18, respectively.

The most expensive technology in 2030 would be open-cycle gas turbines at R4.23 a kilowatt-hour (R2.51 currently) followed by solar photovoltaics at R3.59 (R3.94 currently), Nersa said. Concentrating solar power costs in 2030 were projected to be R1.88 a kilowatt-hour from R3.15 at present.

Largest commercial solar array in Southern Colorado

contentstechnologies  editorialnewspress roompress serviceinformationtrade fairsguestbookclassifiedsuseful links Largest commercial solar array in Southern Colorado Vibrant Solar is about to install the largest commercial solar array in Southern Colorado, a 100 Kilowatt system for Andrews Foodservice Systems on Industrial Boulevard in Pueblo West. 500 solar panels arrive over the next two weeks. The project is expected to be complete by Thanksgiving. Along with energy controllers this system will offset 23% of Andrews' huge electricity demand, reducing pollution by 1.2 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Owners George Andrews III, Jacque Ponx and Debbie Hinkle are proud to get this massive solar array. George said "We are very excited to be able to reduce our electricity bills by a substantial amount. This also marks a great attempt for us to support the 'Go Green' initiative and we will be looking for additional ways to expand this. Overall, we feel this is a win in many ways; for us, the community and the environment."Vibrant Solar is based in Denver and is all Colorado-owned. They are dedicated to becoming a local Pueblo solar company, by hiring local people. Vibrant has contracted Abel Engineering Professionals for structural engineering and two local firms are in line for electrical work. Canyon National Bank provided financing. Vibrant is hiring most of it Pueblo staff from the local area. Denver managers are rotating through the Pueblo office while local staff is being trained.Dr. Juan Trujillo, who introduced Vibrant to Andrews, commented "I am aiding Vibrant Solar for the Pueblo jobs. The Vibrant staff have a lot of experience and knowledge. Their design and financial projection tools are superior. They are an excellent addition to our community."Vibrant was first brought to town by Dr. Trujillo and his partner, Southern Colorado real estate broker Thorne Davis. They are cooperating to develop the Colorado Energy Park southeast of town. The Colorado Energy Park vision includes new generation safe nuclear power plant with renewable energy arrays with the goal of replacing coal fired power plants for baseload electricity in southern Colorado. AEHI and Vibrant are both involved, and the talk is a solar array between 20 megawatts and a staggering 2,000 megawatts of solar. That would make this by far the largest solar array in the world, but even the 20 megawatt size would be the largest in Colorado and one of the largest in the USA. Mr. Davis has been the primary catalyst, bringing together the partners in renewable and nuclear energy, to move the project forward. Vibrant's sister company Helios Solar LLC has licensed a high efficiency concentrated solar photovoltaic product from Australia with the plan to build an assembly plant along the Front Range.

Solar power from Sahara step closer

The technology is not new - it is the scale of the Desertec initiative which is a first

A $400bn (£240bn) plan to provide Europe with solar power from the Sahara moved a step closer to reality today with the formation of a consortium of 12 companies to carry out the work.

The Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) aims to provide 15% of Europe's electricity by 2050 or earlier via power lines stretching across the desert and Mediterranean sea.

The German-led consortium was brought together by Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, and consists of some of country's biggest engineering and power companies, including Siemens, E.ON, ABB and Deutsche Bank.

It now believes the DII can deliver solar power to Europe as early as 2015.

"We have now passed a real milestone as the company has been founded and there is definitely a profitable business there," said Professor Peter Höppe, Munich Re's head of climate change.

"We see this as a big step towards solving the two main problems facing the world in the coming years - climate change and energy security," said Höppe.

The solar technology involved is known as concentrated solar power (CSP) which uses mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays on a fluid container. The super-heated liquid then drives turbines to generate electricity. The advantage over solar photovoltaic panels, which convert sunlight directly to electricity, is that if sufficient hot fluid is stored in containers, the generators can run all night.

The technology is not new - there have been CSP plants running in the deserts of California and Nevada for two decades. But it is the scale of the Desertec initiative which is a first, along with plans to connect North Africa to Europe with new high voltage direct current cables which transport electricity over great distances with little loss.

Leading European energy industry expert Paul van Son has been appointed chief executive of DII and will recruit staff to build up a framework to make the building of both power plants and the grid infrastructure.

"We recognise and strongly support the Desertec vision as a pivotal part of the transition to a sustainable energy supply in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe," he said.

"Now the time has come to turn this vision into reality. That implies intensive cooperation with many parties and cultures to create a sound basis for feasible investments into renewable energy technologies and interconnected grids."

Desertec has gained broad support across Europe, with the newly elected German coalition government of Angela Merkel hoping the project could offset its dependence on Russian gas supplies.

North African governments are said to be keen, too, to further exploit their natural resources. Algeria and Libya are already big oil and gas suppliers to Europe.

Höppe said Munich Re had been concerned about the potential impact of climate change on the insurance business since the early 1970s. Extreme weather events related to climate change are already a reality and have the potential to be uninsurable against within a few decades, pointing to a possible crisis for the industry, he said.

"To keep our business model alive in 30 or 40 years we have to ensure things are still insurable," he said.

Munich Re also plans to invest in the new initiative and Höppe said banks were confident that they could raise sufficient funding to make the project work.

There are already some small CSP plants in Spain and North Africa, with the power used locally. But Desertec plans to see big power stations of one gigawatt operating in five years' time and exporting some current across the Mediterranean. The consortium stresses, though, that power generated by solar fields in North Africa would be used by North Africans as well as Europeans. North Africa has a small population relative to the size of its deserts. For similar reasons Australia is putting together its own Desertec initiative.

Dan Lewis, head of a new thinktank, the Economic Policy Centre, and author of a forthcoming energy policy paper, said: "This is just the sort of long-term, big-difference, energy security gain project that our UK short-term targets and policy framework can't deliver.

"Instead, we're spending ridiculous sums on no-hoper, marginal stuff like fusion energy and a massive smart meter rollout, that at best will only shave a fraction off peak demand."

Abengoa Solar plans California plant

Power company Abengoa Solar’s Colorado-based U.S. division said Monday it will build a 250-megawatt solar thermal power plant in California and sell the electricity to Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a San Francisco-based utility.

Lakewood is U.S. headquarters for Abengoa, a Spanish company.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. PG&E said Monday it’s buying a total of 500 megawatts of solar power, half from Abengoa and half from NextEra Energy Resources’ proposed Genesis solar power plant.

Abengoa’s new plant, dubbed the “Mojave Solar” project, will generate 250 MW and be built in San Bernadina County, between Barstow and Kramer Junction, about nine miles northwest of Hinkley and about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, according to the company.

“This means that we have a second, significant project that is a very serious development,” said Abengoa COO Scott Frier. “It’s a real project, now it can go through project financing.”

The company has applied for a loan guarantee through the U.S. Department of Energy’s stimulus money to help pay for the project, he said.

Construction costs are estimated at between $1 billion and $1.25 billion. If all permitting is approved, the project could break ground next fall, Frier said.

The project is expected to involve about 1,200 construction jobs and, when complete in 2013, have about 80 operations and maintenance jobs, Abengoa said.

The plants from Abengoa and NextEra will use solar thermal technology — curved mirrors in the shape of troughs to focus the sun’s heat onto flud-filled tubes. The heated fluid will be used to create steam for generating electricity from the sun.

Abengoa’s project will be on 1,765 acres of private land that was farmed for years, starting in the 1920s, but currently is largely fallow and left alone. The solar power plant is expected to use “significantly less water per acre” than the farm did, according to Abengoa.

The project is expected to produce power equivalent to the demands of about 90,000 homes, according to PG&E.

Santiago Seage, CEO of Abengoa Solar, said in a statement that “Mojave Solar is a project that we have been working on for several years. The permitting and engineering effort is very advanced and we are very proud to partner with PG&E to make this project a reality.”

Public hearings on the project are slated for December.

Abengoa’s first major project in the U.S. was announced in February 2008 with partner Arizona Public Service. The 280-megawatt power plant, called Solana, will bring an estimated $1 billion in investment to the state, according to Arizona Public Service.

In August 2009, Abengoa Solar announced that Xcel Energy Inc. had chosen the company to build a demonstration concentrating solar power plant at its Cameo coal-based power plant near Grand Junction. Abengoa also responded to Xcel’s request for proposals, issued in January 2009, for a 200 megawatt or bigger power plant using concentrated solar power technology.

cproctor@bizjournals.com

E.ON eyes investment opportunities in Oman

  31 October 2009 Top executives from Germany-based power, gas conglomerate on first ever visit

MUSCAT — E.ON, one of the world’s biggest gas and power companies, is keenly exploring investment and business opportunities in the Sultanate. A team of top executives led by the boss of the Düsseldorf, Germany-headquartered international energy conglomerate was in Muscat late last week for discussions focusing on a number of energy-related areas, spanning LNG processing and supply, gas exploration and production, natural gas and coal-fired power generation, and renewable energy development.The visit headed by Dr Wulf H Bernotat, Chairman of the Board of Management and CEO of E.ON AG, further underscores Oman’s growing international appeal as an investment destination. E.ON is by far the largest privately owned utility company in the world, generating annual sales of just under EUR 87 billion in 2008. With operations in more than 30 countries, the company boasts a global workforce of roughly 93,500 employees. Its business interests span the spectrum of the energy chain, encompassing gas exploration, production, transportation, storage and distribution; LNG supply; natural gas, coal, nuclear and hydro power generation; power transmission, distribution and retail sales; and renewables and carbon sourcing.Speaking exclusively to the Observer, Dr Bernotat said his three-day visit was aimed at assessing opportunities for business and investment in areas linked primarily to the company’s core power and gas business.  Talks with high-ranking government officials focused on, among other areas, prospects for sourcing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Sultanate, as well as potential partnership opportunities in LNG processing schemes. “We are trying to establish opportunities to buy LNG from Oman on a spot or medium term basis.We are also interested in principle in getting involved in LNG schemes in general, as a partner in LNG projects. In this regard, we are talking not only to Oman, but also Qatar in particular,” E.ON’s Chairman and CEO said. “Secondly, we are also gas producers ourselves, and therefore we are interested in the upstream E&P (Exploration and Production) business. We understand there are some opportunities here in Oman with regard to licences that have not yet been awarded for acreage to be explored.”Power generation is another key area of potential investment interest for E.ON, Dr Bernotat said. The energy utility is weighing opportunities linked to the expansion of existing power projects, notably the Ghubrah Power and Water Project, which is proposed to be revamped and modernised. Likewise, it has set its sights on Oman’s first coal-fired power and water project — a 1,000 megawatt plant planned at Duqm on the Sultanate’s Wusta coast. “(Duqm) is a new project where we could also get involved as developer and operator of the plant, since we have quite a number of coal-fired stations under operation, as well as four huge ones under construction in Russia, Germany, Holland and the United States.We are very experienced in building and operating especially coal-fired plants, but also gas fired plants. We have around 80 power stations around the world that we operate, so there is a very broad base on which we have expertise,” Dr Bernotat said. In talks with Omani officials, the CEO said he had also highlighted E.ON’s considerable process in the field of coal-fired power generation and the modern technologies being developed to make such projects environmentally friendly. “We talked about carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology — the process of extracting CO2 from the emission stream and storing it in reservoirs — as an attractive option. We are involved in seven different projects to test the technology — and it could be something interesting for Oman to join in the development of this modern technology.”Duqm, Dr Bernotat says, has all the key ingredients that would allow for the successful development of a coal-fired power project. “You have a location that can receive large seagoing ships that import coal, say, from South Africa, Indonesia or Australia. Because you have reservoirs, you have the potential to store CO2. This means you have all the economics principally in place.” Another area of interest for E.ON is renewables. “We talked about renewables in the form of wind power potentially, and solar power in two different forms: photovoltaic – which is the direct conversion of sunshine into electricity; and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) which involves the use of mirrors to reflect the energy of the sun on to a heat exchanger to produce steam that runs a turbine.”Oman is actively looking at renewables, chiefly solar and wind energy, to help meet the country’s growing energy needs. In addition to a number of small, pilot schemes planned in the rural areas, a large-scale solar energy project is also envisaged over the next few years. Significantly, any eventual investment by E.ON in the Sultanate will be the energy giant’s first in the wider Gulf region. “Oman has been described, first of all, as a well-organised country and a very attractive country to invest – much more than many countries in which we have invested at the moment. From that point of view, it’s a good country to consider for investment,” Dr Bernotat noted.E.ON highlights:74 Gigawatts of installed power generation capacity33,000 km of power transmission lines1 million km of distribution lines10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of equity gas production11,600km of gas transmission lines9.2 bcm of gas storage capacity30m power and gas customersSales of EUR87 billion in 2008Operations in over 30 countries

By Conrad Prabhu

© Oman Daily Observer 2009