Aktuelles

Sahara Wind at the MAKING RENEWABLE ENERGY MARKETS WORK FOR AFRICA Policies, Industries and Finance for Scaling-Up conference April 16-18 2008 in Dakar, Senegal.

A joint activity of the African Union, the Government of Senegal, the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

Objectives

Making use of lessons learnt and experience gained with renewable energy projects in Africa and elsewhere, the conference examined how bottlenecks to renewable energy market related to policies, technologies, financing and capacity can be addressed so as to increase energy challenges in Africa. The conference brought together high-level decision makers to provide visible leadership and commitment to a common strategy for market-based scaling up of renewable energies that is informed by lessons learnt from concrete case studies and the energy situation in Africa.

The Sahara Wind project presented at the UNIDO 12th General Conference during the UNIDO-ICHET side event on December 6, 2007.

All Member States meet every two years at the General Conference, the superior legislative organ of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNIDO, which approves the budget and work programme and provides guidance on key substantive issues.

Twelfth Session of the UNIDO General Conference took place from 3 to 7 December 2007 in the Austria Center Vienna with the overall theme "Industrial Development in a Changing Global Landscape". The Conference brought together some 1000 participants, including Heads of State and Government, Ministers and other high-level government officials and senior representatives of other United Nations organizations. An important feature will be a high-level moderated Forum on the three thematic priorities of UNIDO: Poverty reduction, Trade Capacity-Building, Energy and Environment

The Sahara Wind project presented at the VI World Wind Energy Conference in Mar Del Plata, Argentina 4-7^th October 2007.

The Sahara Wind project’s Capacity Building for Sustainable Energy Access in North Africa were presented under “Wind Energy as Catalyst for Regional Development" during the 6^th World Wind Energy Conference in Mar Del Plata Argentina. The conference was attended by more than 500 high-level delegates from 40 countries to discuss recent developments, successful policies as well as future perspectives of wind energy utilization.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) published its report on building a hydrogen economy coordinated by the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE). The report entitled « Building the Hydrogen Economy: Enabling Infrastructure Development - Part II: Sharing the European Vision » is part of a series of workshops. The second took place on July 10-12 2007 at the International Energy Agency (IEA) headquarters in Paris.

The report can also be downloaded directly under:

/documents/IEA.Hydrogen.Workshop.Report.16.11.07.136263.pdf

Acknowledgements
This publication was prepared by the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Office of Energy Technology and R&D. The authors of this publication are Dr. Robert K. Dixon, Head, Energy Technology and Policy Division, IEA, Ms. Emily Glenn, IEA, Mr. Tom Gross, IF LLC, Mr. Nicolas Lymberopoulos, UNIDO-ICHET, Mr. Khalid Benhamou, Sahara Wind Inc., Dr. Paul Leiby, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Mr. Michael Mills, U.S. Department of Energy, Mr. Richard Scheer, Energetics Incorporated and Ms. Simone Brinkmann, IEA. The information and ideas contained in this document are based upon the IEA and the International Partnership for a Hydrogen Economy (IPHE) joint workshop on July 10-12 in Paris, France titled “Building the Hydrogen Economy: Enabling Infrastructure Development/ Part II: Sharing the European Vision.”

Signature of the US.-Morocco Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement by Habib El Malki, Moroccan Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment and Science Claudia A. McMurray in Rabat on November 14, 2006.

The U.S.-Moroccan S&T Agreement paves the way for collaboration on a broad array of science issues and enables scientists from Maghreb countries neighboring Morocco to participate in a regional S&T dialogue. During the US.-Morocco S&T Agreement signature ceremony, Sahara Wind presented the objectives and regional outreach of the NATO Science for Peace SfP-982620 ‘Sahara Trade Winds to Hydrogen: Applied Research for Sustainable Energy Systems’ project. Acting as Partner country Project Director (PPD) with the US Department of State as NATO country Project Director (NPD) this NATO co-funded applied research project brings together industry with Morocco and Mauritania’s scientific communities. The 'Sahara-Hydrogen' project objective is to deploy hydrogen storage technologies to access the Atlantic trade winds blowing on the Sahara coastline. In addition to the United States, the NATO countries partnering in the project are France (CEA), Germany (Ministry of Energy NRW) and Turkey (UNIDO-ICHET).

The Sahara Wind project presented at the 5th World Wind Energy Conference in New Delhi, India on November 06^th 2006.

Inaugurated by H.E. DR. APJ ABDUL KALAM, the Honorable President of India, the 5^th World Wind Energy Conference was held under the theme of ‘Energy Independence: Powered by Wind’. During this event, the Sahara Wind project was presented under the title “Integrating Wind Power in Africa: Case Studies of Morocco and Egypt Africa’s Wind Pioneers”. The presentation took place during the first session dedicated to national policies & markets.

The Sahara Wind project's Hydrogen energy component presented at the International Seminar on the Hydrogen Economy for Sustainable Development on 27-29 September 2006 in Reykjavik, Iceland

Complementary to Phase 1 of the Sahara Wind project, “Hydrogen Energy as a Comprehensive Approach Integrating Energy Systems for Sustainable Development” was presented at the International Seminar on the Hydrogen Economy for Sustainable Development. Co-organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs UN-DESA and the Government of Iceland, the Seminar took place during the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy IPHE 6th Steering Committee Meeting on September 26-27^th 2006.

As its original project concept developer and in partnership with Morocco’s Center for Development of Renewable Energies, Sahara Wind established the Joint UNDP-GEF-WB PIMS # 3292 ‘Morocco: Sahara Wind Phase I/Tarfaya (400-500 MW) on –Grid Wind Electricity in a Liberalized Market’ Project Development Facility PDF-B. Under Pipeline 19, the project is submitted to the  United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - Global Environment Facility (GEF) - WORLD-BANK on February 04th 2005.

The full Joint UNDP-GEF-WB PIMS # 3292 document can be downloaded under:

https://www.saharawind.com/documents/FinalJointUNDP-GEF-WBPDF-B.SaharaWind-Feb04-2005.pdf

The Sahara Wind project presented at the 2nd World Wind Energy Conference in Cape Town, South Africa on November 24^th 2003.

Focusing on how to bring wind energy developments to African countries, the conference brought over 120 high-level government representatives, leading international scientists and experienced entrepreneurs from 33 different countries. Speakers presented accounts, case studies and success stories of the development of wind energy in their respective countries. The Sahara Wind project was presented under “Policies for the future: spreading awareness of wind opportunities (North Africa)”.

Think energy megaprojects are passé? Check out www.Saharawind.com, a private development group based in Morocco. They want to build 5 GW of wind in the Sahara Desert and ship the juice to Europe via monster undersea D.C. transmission lines. “In the run-up to the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in September, it looks more and more like there will be problems with defining concrete further steps—and the European Union should have some concrete projects it can support. The Saharawind project represents a unique example of power integration opportunity between both continents.”

At the invitation of Green MEP Claude Turmes, the Sahara Wind project is presented at the European Parliament in Brussels on June 20th, 2002.

The presentation was followed by a question session, raising a numbers of technical issues. To assist in answering them Khalid Benhamou, Managing Director of Sahara Wind was accompanied by Dr. Gregor Czisch who holds a PhD in electrical engineering. The latter was obtained on a "Scenarios for a Future Electricity Supply – Cost-Optimized Approaches to Supplying Europe and its Neighbours with Electricity from Renewable Energies" thesis dissertation, for which he was awarded a summa cum laude distinction. Ahead of the Johannesburg Sustainable Energy Conference of 2002, the Sahara Wind project was presented to the European Parliament as a joint alternative in response to clean energy access and development challenges of the African continent.

Sahara Wind at the 1^st World Renewable Energy Policy and Strategy Forum 2002- Renewable Energies: Agenda 1 of the Agenda 21, Berlin June 13-15th, 2002

The Forum enabled the elaboration of an Action Plan for the Global Proliferation of Renewable Energy. The document states the critical link between energy systems and the development of societies. Limits of the fossil/nuclear energy system were made relevant compared to Renewable Energy as a possible complete alternative. This laid the ground of a new energy paradigm. As a result, a set of recommendations were elaborated to facilitate this historical energy transition.