The EuroAfrica Interconnector
The Wikipedia entry for the EuroAfrica Interconnector, introduces the project like this.
EuroAfrica Interconnector is a HVDC interconnector and submarine power cable between the Greek, Cypriot, and Egypt power grids.
The Wikipedia entry has a section called Technical Data, where this is said.
The EuroAfrica Interconnector will link Egypt with the Cypriot and Greek power grids through the island of Crete, with a high-voltage direct current submarine power cable of length around 1,396-kilometre (867 mi). Egypt will be connected with Cyprus with a 498-kilometre (309 mi) long cable. Cyprus will be connected with Crete with a 898-kilometre (558 mi) long cable providing a connection to the pan-European electricity grid.[1] The laying depth of cable will be up to 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) under sea level in some areas between Crete and Cyprus. It will have a capacity to transmit 2,000 megawatts of electricity in either direction. Annual transmission capacity is 17.5 TWh, much more than the annual production of the Aswan Dam.
In The EuroAsia Interconnector, I noted how Israel will be connected to Cyprus, thus when both interconnectors are complete, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece and Israel will be able to share electricity.
Will We See More Multi-Country Renewable Energy Deals?
In this blog, I have talked about various deals, where two or more countries and/or companies are getting together to generate electricity in one country and transfer it to another, either as electricity or as hydrogen
Examples include.
- The Asian Renewable Energy Hub, which I first wrote about in Vast Australian Renewable Energy Site Powers BP’s Ambitions.
- The Australia-Asia PowerLink, which I first wrote about in Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink.
- Fortescue Future Industries will convert cattle stations in Western Australia into renewable power stations.
- The EuroAfrica Interconnector is a HVDC interconnector and submarine power cable between the Greek, Cypriot, and Egypt power grids, which I first wrote about in The EuroAfrica Interconnector.
- The EuroAsia Interconnector is a proposed HVDC interconnector between the Greek, Cypriot, and Israeli power grids via the world’s longest submarine power cable, which I first wrote about in The EuroAsia Interconnector.
- Icelink is a proposed electricity interconnector between Iceland and Great Britain, which I first wrote about in Is Iceland Part Of The Solution To The Problem Of Russia?
- The Morocco-UK Power Project, which I first wrote about in Moroccan Solar-Plus-Wind To Be Linked To GB In ‘Ground-Breaking’ Xlinks Project.
- Namibian Green Hydrogen, which I first wrote about in Namibia Is Building A Reputation For The Cheapest Green Hydrogen.
There are also all the hydrogen deals done by Fortescue Future Industries.
Where Are There Possibilities Of More Multi-Country Renewable Energy Deals?
These are a few serious possibilities.
Argentina
This is an extract from this page on Wind Energy International, which is entitled Argentina.
Argentina has an estimated technical wind energy potential of 300 GW. In southern Patagonia (Chubut and Santa Cruz provinces), average wind speeds range between 9.0 and 11.2 m/s, whereas in the north (Neuquén and Río Negro provinces), wind speeds range from 7.2 to 8.4 m/s. The general average capacity factor for Argentina is 35% and in the Patagonia region it ranges between as much as 47% and 59%. Especially in Northwest Patagonia, locally known as the Comahue region, hydro and wind may seasonally complement each other and.benefit both technologies. One other promising region for wind power development is the Atlantic sea coast.
As I wrote in Australia’s FFI Plans $8.4 Billion Green Hydrogen Project In Argentina, it appears that Andrew Forrest and FFI are already on the ground.
Australia
There are already three major schemes based on Australia and I am certain they will be more. Especially, as Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore will need the zero-carbon energy.
It would appear that except for the Australia-Asia PowerLink, the energy will be transferred as liquid hydrogen or liquid ammonia.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh wouldn’t be on the lists of many, where ideal countries for renewable energy are being discussed.
But, this report on Energy Tracker Asia is entitled The Renewable Energy Potential of Bangladesh, where this is said.
A report investigating the renewable energy technical capacity of Bangladesh found that the country could deploy up to 156 GW of utility-scale solar on 6,250 km2 of land and 150 GW of wind. Offshore wind power would account for 134 GW of this total capacity.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bangladesh, supplying renewable energy to the East, with international companies and organisations developing the renewable infrastructure.
I think it should be noted that international companies flock to countries, where the investment opportunities are good. That has happened in the UK, with offshore wind, where many wind farms have been developed by companies such as Equinor, Iberola, RWE and Wattenfall.
Chile
Chile has started to develop the 100,000 square kilometres of the Atacama Desert for solar power and I wrote about this in The Power Of Solar With A Large Battery.
This sentence in the Wikipedia entry for Energy In Chile, illustrates the potential of solar power in the Atacama Desert.
In 2013, Total S.A. announced the world’s largest unsubsidised solar farm would be installed with assistance from SunPower Corp into Chile’s Atacama desert.
I also wrote Chile Wants To Export Solar Energy To Asia Via 15,000km Submarine Cable, about Chile’s ambitions to supply Asia with energy.
Ethiopia
Andrew Forrest of Fortescue Future Industries is on the case, as I wrote in Fortescue Future Industries Enters Ethiopia to Produce Green Energy.
North Africa
Consider.
- The major North African countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, all have and depend on to a certain extent on fossil fuels.
- There are gas pipelines to Spain and Italy.
- Morocco will be the Southern end of the Morocco-UK Power Project, if it gets developed.
- All five countries have some nuclear power stations.
- All five countries have lots of sun for solar power.
- Some Saharan countries to the South of Morocco, Algeria and Libya could also provide energy from the sun.
- Egypt has substantial hydro-electric power on the River Nile.
- Egypt will be connected to Greece through the EuroAfrica Interconnector.
I believe that a well-designed and co-ordinated project could generate a lot of electricity and hydrogen for Europe and bring much-needed income and employment to North Africa.
I feel that if the Morocco-UK Power Project can be successfully built, then this could create a flurry of activity all over North Africa.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has a problem. As the rest of the world moves away from fossil fuels in the next few decades, they will see the revenues from oil and natural gas come under pressure.
But as a rich country, with 2.15 million km² of land and lots of sun, they must have some potential to generate solar electricity.
In the Wikipedia entry for Solar Power In Saudi Arabia, this is said.
The Saudi agency in charge of developing the nations renewable energy sector, Ka-care, announced in May 2012 that the nation would install 41 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity by 2032.[2] It was projected to be composed of 25 GW of solar thermal, and 16 GW of photovoltaics. At the time of this announcement, Saudi Arabia had only 0.003 gigawatts of installed solar energy capacity. A total of 24 GW of renewable energy was expected by 2020, and 54 GW by 2032.
Wikipedia also says that Saudi Arabia also has nuclear ambitions.
I can see that Saudi Arabia will replace some of their oil and gas exports with green hydrogen.
Bombardier Transportation Consortium Preferred Bidder In $4.5B Cairo Monorail
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the Toronto Star.
This the first three paragraphs of the article.
Bombardier Transportation says its consortium has been named preferred bidder in a C$4.5 billion contract to build and supply a new monorail system in Egypt’s capital.
The company’s potential share of the design and build contract for the system in Cairo is C$1.8 billion with an operations and maintenance deal valued at about C$1.67 billion over 30 years.
The 54-kilometre monorail will connect East Cairo with the New Administrative City and a second 42-km line will connect 6th October City with Giza.
The railway division of Bombardier Inc. will deliver the project in partnership with two Egyptian companies Orascom Construction and the Arab Contractors with the trains being developed and built in Derby, Britain.
The article then mentions the Bombardier Innovia monorail.
- The latest Innovia 300 monorail is automated and driverless.
- These trains can travel at 80 kph
- They can handle 48,000 passengers per hour in both directions.
- The latest versions are manufactured in Brazil, Canada and China
- The latest versions are installed or planned in Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
I think there must be more to this project than the article in the Toronto Star.
What Are The Strengths Of The Innovia 300 Monorail?
This is Bombardier’s video of the monorail.
It looks to be a well-designed system, that has several strengths.
- It is automated and driverless.
- Cars are short and the trains can take quite curves, with as low as a 46 metre radius.
- Trains can have up to eight cars. The Cairo trains will be four cars.
- The latest cars look stylish, with cab design not unlike an Aventra.
- The cars appear to be walkthrough.
- The track is a slender concrete beam with walkways on either side for passenger evacuation and maintenance.
- The tracks wouldn’t necessarily have to be elevated.
- Construction could be quicker than a conventional railway.
- It could also be built to travel over roads, railways, water and building, by placing the beam at the right height.
I would like to see one in operation, but Brazil is a long way, so I’ll stick with the video for the moment.
Why Develop And Build In Derby?
Why would a big company like Bombardier, with already three production lines for the monorail, want to setup another production line in Derby?
Bombardier say that the trains will also be developed in Derby.
Perhaps, some or all of these reasons apply.
- The cross-section of an Innovia 300 monorail car looks to be about the size of a British train.
- Can Derby’s manufacturing technology that has been used successfully to build Electrostar and Aventra bodies be applied to the Innovia monorail.
- Derby has good relations with a large number of appropriate suppliers in the UK and Europe.
- The new version will use the Aventra parts bin to cut development and manufacturing costs.
- Supporting the Egyptian system from Derby will not be difficult.
- Canada has better relations with the UK, than Brazil or China.
But even so, development could surely have been continued in Canada.
So Bombardier must have very good reasons!
Are Bombardier Proposing A Closely-Related Design For The Tyne And Wear Metro?
The current Class 994 trains of the Tyne and Wear Metro have the following dimensions.
- Width – 2.65 metres
- Height – 3.45 metres
- Car Length – 27.8 metres
- Train Length – 55.6 metres
The Class 710 train, which is an Aventra has the following dimensions.
- Width – 2.77 metres
- Height – 3.76 metres
So it would appear that the standard Aventra might be too large to fit the Metro, where Bombardier are approved bidders.
It does appear that Bombardier have designed the Aventra’s body from three aluminium extrusions, so these could be resized to fit the smaller dimensions of the Metro.
But looking at the video of the Innovia 300 monorail, I get the impression, that above the floor, the body might be almost the same size as that needed for the trains for the Metro.
So Bombardier would need to design an appropriate chassis, to replace that used for the monorail.
This could mean that the bodies on both trains could be identical.
- Four fifteen metre cars, would give a length of sixty metres.
- If longer trains are needed, then extra cars could be inserted up to a length of eight cars.
- The trains would be walk-through with lots of doors for easy exit according to the video.
- The four-car design would enable tight curves could be negotiated.
- There would surely be advantages in support and maintenance.
- Cabs could be provide for the driver if required.
I also believe that any new trains must have step-free access between train and platform. This picture shows a current train at South Shields station.
That is not bad for a system that opened forty years ago.
I would think that Bombardier will make the access better, when designing a new chassis from scratch.
But the big advantages of commonality between the Innovia monorail and the Metro cars, would be in the areas of support and expansion or lengthening of the fleet in the future.
What About The Docklands Light Railway?
The Docklands Light Railway like the Tyne and Wear Metro, is another one-off system, that is incompatible with most other rail systems in the UK.
The DLR is intending to replace the rolling stock and Bombardier has been shortlisted.
The current trains of the DLR have the following dimensions.
- Width – 2.65 metres
- Height – 3.47 metres
- Car Length – 28 metres
- Train Length – 56 metres
Give or take a few millimetres, they are almost the same size as the trains on the Tyne and Wear Metro.
Could we see similar trains on the Tyne and Wear Metro and the Docklands Light Railway?
Wikipedia says that the new DLR fleet will be 87 metres long, so could that mean six 14.5 metre cars?
A Possible Tram-Train?
Bombardier build trams and have supplied them to the UK.
The UK has just started to develop tram-train systems, with the South Wales Metro being developed in the next few years with Class 399 tram-trains.
If Bombardier use the concept, I’ve outlined here for the Tyne and Wear Metro and the Docklands Light Railway, I believe it is only a short development to get a tram-train, that could run in the UK
I’m sure that they could get it to work in Blackpool, where the company supplied their trams for the Blackpool tramway.
Are Bombardier Expecting Orders From Europe?
It was only in 2014, that the first Innovia 300 monorail route, Line 15 (São Paulo Metro), opened in Brazil.
But since then, have several Transport Authorities, City Councils and Governments visited Brazil to have a look?
Do Bombardier feel that they will be selling other systems in Europe?
If so, then Derby will be an excellent sales, development, production and support base.
Could We See Some Monorails In The UK?
If you look at the list of Bombardier Innovia systems on Wikipedia, there are several short systems at places like airports and theme parks and a few longer systems of which the Cairo system will be the longest.
I can see opportunities for the shorter distance systems.
- As a part of developments of Heathrow Airport’s third runway.
- As a part of the development of Gatwick Airport’s second runway.
- Linking Ebbsfleet International and Northfleet stations.
- Linking East Midlands Airport to East Midlands Parkway station.
- Linking the proposed Eden Centre at Morecambe with Lancaster station.
- Linking Bristol Airport to the City Centre
- Greenhithe station to the Bluewater shopping Centre.
- It could be a modern replacement for the Liverpool Overhead Railway.
There are probably other locations at stations, airports and theme parts, where Innovia monorail systems could be installed.
As to a longer system in the UK, the only one I can think off would be to link High Speed Two at East Midlands Hub station to Derby and Nottingham and perhaps East Midlands Airport.
But then that would then be a system on Derby’s doorstep.
Conclusion
There are possibilities and with a billion pound-plus order, the project could be on its way!
But surely, the big advantage to Bombardier is if they get the orders for the new trains for the Tyne and Wear Metro and the Docklands Light Railway, they can create trains with a lot of shared components for all three applications.
The two UK systems would get trains that weren’t totally unique, which must ease maintenance and future expansions of the respective systems.
Egypt To Power Europe By Underwater Cable
The title of this post is the same as that of a short news item on page 32 of today’s Times.
Egypt appears to be using gas from four new offshoregas fields to generate the power.
But surely, they could also use solar, as I’ve heard Egypt gets a lot of sun!
I do think though, that countries like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco, which are all reasonably close to Europe could generate substantial amounts of solar power, which could then be exported to the North, through undersea cables, which are not very long using today’s technology.
I also think, that solar power will grow Southwards from the countries bordering the Mediterranean.
Will these basket case countries like Sudan, Mauritania, Somalia and Chad, acquire both an income and the electricity they need to improve the lot of their people?
Whether, their people will benefit, is another question, but Europe’s need for green energy could be the need, that these countries will fill, using unproductive desert.
I also think, there’s scope to combine solar farms with agriculture in the shade to create the food they need.
Read Solar Farms And Biodiversity on Solar Power Portal.
Balloons Over Luxor
I remember a few years ago, standing on the balcony of the Winter Palace Winter Palace hotel in Luxor with C watching the balloons in the early morning sun. Neither of us had any desire to go up, although she did say I could go if I wanted. The made a magnificent site, as they floated over the land beyond the Nile.
Today’s balloon tragedy sets that beauty on a different plane.
I’m not saying I’ll never go in a hot-air balloon. But I certainly wouldn’t unless there was only a couple of passengers and a pilot I knew personally. If you want to create any form of accident, lots of people who know nothing about it, is a good place to start.
Israel Builds A High Speed Rail Line
When you think of Israel, you don’t generally think of train lines, as after all it’s a small country geographically. But then there has been a long history of train travel in the area and especially a hundred or so years ago.
So I was rather surprised to see in The Times yesterday, that Israel is intending to build a heavy rail line from the cities on the Mediterranean coast to Eilat on the Red Sea. The aim is to run high-speed passenger trains to help develop the southern city and also create a freight by-pass for the Suez Canal, which now looks it could get a bit dangerous with all the troubles in Egypt.
There’s a lot more here on the Med-Red railway in Wikipedia.
I have a feeling we’re going to hear a lot more about this railway and the effects it will have on Egypt.
Who Do the Young, Liberals and Women Vote For in Egypt?
The BBC in this report describes the two candidates thus.
Mohammed Mursi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, is up against Ahmed Shafiq, former President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister.
In the UK, it would be the equivalent of choosing between a Catholic Archbishop and Len McCluskey of UNITE or Bob Diamond of Barclays.
We’d certainly be on the streets protesting.
The Luckiest Footballer Alive
Former Tottenham midfielder Hossam Ghaly, was lucky not to be involved in the rioting in Port Said, despite playing for one of the teams involved. Apparently, he’d been sent off before the trouble started and was in the dressing room.
Can there have been a better time and place to get a red card?
Today’s Times Leaders
They are a classic.
The first details the rows in the Labour Party and how Blairite is now an insult.
The second says that America’s investment in Mubarak’s leadership in Egypt was very misguided.
It finishes by taslking about how various factions and religions in India have destroyed the largest literary festival in Asia at Jaipur.
We need some compassionate and sensible thinking.
Last Night’s Lunar Eclipse
I didn’t see the eclipse here in London, but my son saw it in Cairo, where incidentally the BBC showed it on the television this morning. It looked fairly spectacular and extremely beautiful.
The Anonymous Widower 