European solar map

Here is a map that reveals the solar energy potential for the Europea, and part of Middle East and North Africa: 11 MB pdf file.

Perhaps not to anyone ones surprise: The Mediterrean countries have much higher potential than Northern Europe. But even in the southern parts of Sweden solar panels for heating up water can be economically viable with break even of investment already after 5-7 years. Considering that a good house should be able to used for 100 or more years is is reasonably quick. And most people that buy a house would probably live in it more much longer than 7 years.

Read more on euractiv and JRC PVGIS.

I guess that most of the OPEC countries could be energy self-suffiecient by going over to solar energy. Since the Arabic peninsula mostly is desert it should be no match for them to set aside land enough for this. Same goes for Marocko and Libya etc. Maybe Khaddafi should write a really green book?

REN wants nuclear power in Portugal

In Jornal de Negocios of 2007-03-27 was an article after an interview with the current president of REN (the electricity grid operator in Portugal) Jose Penedo.

He had some really amazing things to say:

"No cannot think that other countries will take of nuclear power. It has to be resolved by us". That would strike most people as a very weird statement since Portugal does not have nuclear power nor do the current government want to have it! So there is nothing to be taken care or be resolved...

Gladely he thinks that solar and wind power together will cover 50% of Portugal needs for electricity (current usage I guess). So instead of building nuclear power plants as Jose wants one should increase the efficiency of the use of electricity. Doubling the efficiency does not seem very much out of reach!!! At least considering the inefficiency of today ...

Furthermore Jose wants that someone should go to prison for not building a hydroelectric dam in Foz Coa. Jose thinks that UNESCO attributed Foz Coa as World Heritage site made Foz Coa into a prisoner. Go figure what is going on in the grey matter of that guy!!!

Since he is head of the only company in Portugal that distributes electricity he of course wants the company to stay in business. Solar panels and wind power (and wave power) would generate plenty of electricity for REN to distribute.

But it is a bit extreme to introduce nuclear power plants in Portugal and to drown a world heritage site just to stay in business ...

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Some clips from Jornal de Negocios 2007-01-29:

The numbers above are the percental increase in wind, hydro and biomass power the Portuguese government aims at for 2010. Now that probably seems little especially (wind and biomass) since wind power is considered one of largest potential in Portugal. But one of the dams are planned to be on a World Heritage Site! Also, biomass energy probably could increase multiple times its current use if all rest products from agriculture, and energy crops where introduced.

Also, the government foresees plenty (50000 til 2010) of microgeneration installations! That is also part of distributed energy generation system that will be studied (and developed) by FEUP and MIT.

Even so, talk about congestion taxes for Lissabon and Porto has surfaced at government level! See the previous post.

Portugal just started to get interesting!

Btw:
University of Minho has to pay a fine of 700 000€ because some century old cork oaks (sobreiros centenarios) were cut down during a recent construction on one the campi. The story is not improved by the severe budget cuts from the state (ca 10% or is 20%), now the principal is soaking up all reserves that the departments have to manage this year. If nothing drastic happens until next, such as a large increase in students, the axe will probably swing next year ...

Solar panel factory near Aveiro

It might seem from my recent posts on IKEA and Pescanova that the Portuguese government use the classification "Project of National Importance" (PIN) as a way to circumvent any environmental concern. Although in JdN 2007-01-05 there is an article about a solar panel factory that has attained PIN status. Although there seem to be a hickup since a new conference centre (Exponor) also has PIN status for an overlapping area. The article is a bit confusing. They talk about Matosinhos and Aveiro. But I think the factory is supposed to be in Aveiro. There already is an Exponor in Leca da Palmeira (which is close to Matosinhos).

The spin of the article is that the solar panel factory threatens the conference centre (sic!). I guess Portugal has its fair share of conference centres already. A solar panel factory, which is described as high tech, is certainly much more needed in Portugal. Not only for the high tech but for the positive environmental impact of using solar energy.