WATANI International
21 August 2011
No one is sure yet whether or not Egypt will go ahead with the Dabaa nuclear plant project. Following the disaster at the nuclear power plant at Fukushima in Japan last year and the consequent questions regarding nuclear safety, the Dabaa project has been strongly compromised and no decision has yet been taken.
An Egyptian high-level delegation earlier this year attended meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to review extra safety measures to be adopted in any new nuclear project in Egypt. The delegation also discussed with IAEA officials the needs of Egypt’s nuclear energy programme, and held meetings with the representatives of international companies expected to apply for the bid to set up a new nuclear plant at Dabaa.
Which raises the all-too-obvious question of why Egypt would consider nuclear energy and disregard something as self-evident as solar energy, a source that is abundant, renewable, non-polluting, and perfectly safe?
Cleaner and safer
On a recent visit to Cairo Nagi Boulos, director of Middle East business development with US NovaSolar Technologies Inc., told Watani that Egypt was poised to be among the best producers of solar energy on a world scale. “Unfortunately our projects in Egypt are frozen because of the conditions Egypt has been going through since the revolution,” Mr Boulos said.
“When we met the staff of the Nuclear Energy Authority they expressed their wariness of the inefficiency of solar energy compared with nuclear energy. This may be partly true, since solar panels are rapidly depleted, and to produce the amount of energy produced by a nuclear plant erected on five feddans of land, a solar plant requires some 100 feddans.”
Mr Boulos pointed out that gas and electricity prices in Egypt are high. “We would like, over a five-year plan, to bring them down from the current USD3/watt to USD1/watt. This can easily be done through the use of solar energy.”
Another advantage of solar panels, according to Mr Boulos, is that they are manufactured using silicon, which is available in Egypt’s abundant sands.
Giving way to solar
Erik Vaaler, NovaSolar’s chief engineer, commented that people in Egypt are worried about the cost of solar plants, but forget that while a nuclear plant requires more than 50 experienced personnel for maintenance and technical support, a solar plant requires no more than two people, and maintenance is inexpensive.
“If Canada, where the sun shines intermittently throughout the year, has established solar energy power plants, how come Egypt, with its vast, sunny deserts, is not considering several stations that could export energy to the whole world?” Mr Vaaler asked.
So why has a country like the US not yet changed all its nuclear reactors into clean and safe solar energy stations?
“No nuclear plants have been built for the past two years.” Mr Vaaler says. “So, worldwide, nuclear is indeed giving way to solar.”