As was evident in many of the articles published in Europe’s World’s "Special Section” on Energy in its Autumn 2011 issue, Europe is heavily reliant on energy imports from countries located outside its borders. This dependencies caused by a number of factors. As welfare standards and quality of life improve, the demand for energy also increases. Yet Europe suffers a huge disparity between supply and demand, as local fossil fuel supplies can only meet 57% of Europe’s energy need. Germany’s and Switzerland’s recent decisions to phase-out their nuclear power plants put further pressure on local energy supplies, and the EU-10– Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia –may also face social and political pressure to reduce their levels of nuclear-generated energy. Add to this the perpetual need to cut CO2 emissions and to move towards a greener economy and you have a rather desperate energy situation for Europe.
So, based on these reasons, and perhaps for other reasons unbeknown to us, Europe is now looking to import green energy from Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. One of the strategic processes put in place to push this forward is the Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP), which aims by 2020 to develop 20 GW of renewable energy sources in the Mediterranean region. The DESERTEC Initiative also aims eventually to import around 15% of Europe's electricity consumption. What’s more, recent and ongoing studies discuss the possibility of physically transferring organic electricity generated from renewable resources in MENA countries to Europe.
Yet the view from the southern border of the Mediterranean couldn’t be more different. Until now, electricity produced from both solar and wind energy projects represented only 0.32% of its total electricity generation and absolutely no local manufacturing even existed. Eleven MENA countries, representing 50% of the Arabian states, have already announced their future renewable energy production targets, but none of these plans include establishing renewable energy projects for exportation. The countries’ own shares of energy covered by future renewable energy targets only marginally meet their national needs. Also, the current network of electricity grids couldn’t cope with transferring the forecasted amount of organic electricity between the MENA countries themselves, let alone to Europe.
So, Europe needs to go back to the drawing board. Yes, MENA countries do need to re-evaluate their future renewable energy targets and take into consideration that they may be exporting some energy to Europe. But, rather than relying on this, Europe should seriously reconsider how it can generate more energy at home.
Mohammed Mostafa El-Khayat is Managing Director of Technical Affairs at the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), Cairo. mohamed.elkhayat@yahoo.com, www.energyandeconomy.com