Solar power

Ethiopia

The village of Rema is situated on a plateau in northern Ethiopia, and is home to the country's largest solar project, set up five years ago with financial support from Germany's Solar Energy Foundation. Since then, 1,200 solar systems have been installed in Rema, bringing power to over 5,000 people in a country where only one percent of the population in rural areas has access to electricity. The first International Solar Energy School, where students from technical schools are trained to manage solar energy, also opened its doors here. The school itself is powered by solar energy, with a photovoltaic system providing electricity and a solar thermal system providing warm water. The solar panels in Rema are used to power lighting, refrigeration for medicine, water pumps, and water disinfection plants. The pioneering project is now being introduced in other villages.

India

Only one in three Indians has access to electricity. The rest of the population uses kerosene lamps, which burn almost 60 million tons of oil in developing nations every year. In a village some 100 kilometers away from Mumbai, the local Adivasi or tribal community have begun using mobile lamps powered by solar energy. Even the children benefit: Now, they can continue to do schoolwork even when it's dark.

Morocco

Morocco has launched what it claims is the biggest solar-thermal energy project in a single country. Located in the east of the country near the Algerian border, the plant is now supplying electricity to the Moroccan grid, using over 200 parabolic mirror collectors concentrating sun energy and boosting the steam output needed to produce electricity. And it's just the beginning: Morocco is preparing major solar power projects on a total of five sites, with state-of-the-art solar facilities composed of photovoltaic and solar thermal energy mechanisms. We accompany Moroccan solar energy pioneer Abdelaziz Bennouna to one of these new locations. By 2020, the country expects to draw over 40 percent of its energy needs from solar, wind, hydro power and biomass.

Spain

The Plataforma Solar de Almeria is the largest European center for research, development and testing of concentrating solar technologies. We meet up with Christoph Richter from the German Aerospace Center, who has spent over 15 years developing concepts for solar thermal power plants in Spain. Like many experts, he believes the future belongs to solar power towers (also known as 'Central Tower' power plants or 'Heliostat' power plants). These focus the sun's rays upon a collector tower and boast designs that allow power to be generated even when the sun is not shining.

Author: Anne Hoffmann (jp)
Editor: Sonia Phalnikar