[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/diw/diwwrp/wr5-24.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Power from the Desert: Not a Mirage

Author

Listed:
  • Claudia Kemfert
  • Wolf-Peter Schill
Abstract
Energy policy is confronted by two major challenges. First, fossil fuels will become ever more scarce and expensive in coming years, a trend which will intensify conflicts for the control of natural resources. Second, the burning of fossil fuels-particularly coal-is leading to an increase in harmful greenhouse gas emissions. To address these challenges, the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption must be considerably increased. In sharp contrast to fossil fuels, which are becoming ever more depleted, renewable energy sources are essentially inexhaustible. Furthermore, renewable energy produces hardly any greenhouse gases. The large-scale exploitation of solar energy for power generation offers enormous potential. In theory, solar-thermal collectors installed in North Africa over an area roughly the size of New Jersey could meet all of Europe's electricity needs. The construction of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) lines would be necessary to import power from the Mediterranean region without excessive transmission losses. An expansion of European electricity networks could also yield supplementary benefits, including enhanced integration of domestic renewable energy (such as wind power), and improved competition in electricity markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudia Kemfert & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2009. "Power from the Desert: Not a Mirage," Weekly Report, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 5(24), pages 171-175.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwrp:wr5-24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.339850.de/diw_wr_2009-24.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electricity trade; Solar energy; DESERTEC;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • P28 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Natural Resources; Environment

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:diw:diwwrp:wr5-24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/diwbede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.