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Bahrain says it will be able to use renewable energy in the form of solar and wind power in three years.
A committee has been set up to draw plans to develop and generate the two types of renewable energy in the country.
The kingdom hopes to benefit from the move because it would reduce dependence on gas and oil and reduce pollution.
Moreover, renewable energy would never run out. It will be an addition to the power grid.
Although renewable energy has the support of many, there are also many challenges that go with its adoption and implementation.
One of the big challenges with using wind to replace natural gas is that, unlike the steady flame from natural gas, the wind doesn't blow all the time.
To make sure enough power is available when the wind isn't blowing, backup generators would be needed.
That could mean maintaining those natural gas plants in case of emergency, or implementing even more novel ideas like systems in Europe that use excess wind electricity to pump water uphill when the wind is blowing, then release it through hydro dams when the wind stops. Either way, any type of backup system comes with a price.
The GCC power grid could offer a solution to this problem.
The power grid will allow several wind farms from member countries to be tied together in the same electricity grid; when some are idle, others could make up the difference.
Regarding solar, several studies have shown that the solar resources of the Gulf and Mena are truly colossal. Gerhard Knies of Desertec, a German government-supported research group based in Hamburg, says that satellite-based studies show that by using less than 0.3 per cent of the entire desert area of the Mena region, enough electricity could be produced to meet all of the energy needs of these countries and Europe combined.
From measurements of irradiation levels in the region, the German studies show that every year, each square kilometre of desert receives solar energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil. Multiplying by the area of hot deserts worldwide, this is nearly a thousand times the entire annual energy consumption of the world.
Studies conducted by Desertec and also by the IEA show that a solar-powered scenario for Mena and Gulf could be based on two technologies working simultaneously. One is photovoltaic (PV) cells, which are modular and can be worked off-grid in a decentralised fashion. This means that the modules are assembled in a way that can be customised to the exact electrical needs of individual buildings and homes. Two major requirements are air-conditioning and lighting, both of which could be met by PV technology.
A crucial cost-saving in PV-equipped buildings is that there are no transmission losses because electricity is generated and used directly on site. In the conventional fossil fuel power station/grid scenario, some 50-70 per cent of energy is wasted through transmission losses.
Also, in terms of the cost of production, it is calculated that with economies of scale and "learning by doing", PV generation costs could drop to US 5 cents a kilowatt hour by 2050, which is about half the cost of electricity from fossil fuels.
The second technology, concentrated solar power (CSP), is complementary to PV and would feed into a centralised grid to meet society-wide electrical needs. CSP works by collecting solar energy with parabolic metallic troughs or mirrors (heliostats) covering acres of land that concentrate sun rays on to a central tower or concave dish.
The heat is used to generate steam that drives a conventional turbine to produce electricity. The heat is also stored during daylight hours in tanks of molten salt which can then be used to return heat to drive the turbines during the night.
Although solar energy has been touted for years as a safer, cleaner alternative to burning fossil fuels to meet rising energy demands, environmentalists and others are increasingly concerned about the potential negative impact of solar cell (photovoltaic) technology.
Manufacture of photovoltaic cells requires potentially toxic metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium and produces carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming.
Even relatively inert silicon, a major material used in solar cells, can be hazardous to workers if it is breathed in as dust. Workers involved in manufacturing photovoltaic modules and components must consequently be protected from exposure to these materials.
None of these potential hazards is much different in quality or magnitude from the innumerable hazards people face routinely in an industrial society. Through effective regulation, the dangers can very likely be kept at a very low level.
The large amount of land required for utility-scale solar power plants-approximately one square kilometre for every 20-60 megawatts generated-poses an additional problem. But this problem is not unique to solar power plants.
Generating electricity from coal actually requires as much or more land per unit of energy delivered if the land used in strip mining is taken into account. Solar-thermal plants (like most conventional power plants) also require cooling water, which may be costly or scarce in desert areas.
