Comparing socioeconomic & environmental impacts of building 2GW PV power plant in both sides of the Medeterranian

Abstract

One of the most important and challenging task in the near future is the construction of large PV Power Plants (PP) on both sides of the Mediterranean. The Solar Power Plants built In Italy, Spain and Germany exceeds already several GW, whereas few projects are just starting on the other side of the Mediterranean (Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco). No projects exist yet in Egypt, although the solar radiation in Egypt is the highest in the world. The socioeconomic difficulties facing the construction of large PV plants in Europe will be briefly summarized. Using up-to-date available information we intend to argue in this paper that building, e.g., 2GW PV PP in Egypt and transmitting the electricity through HVDC submarine transmission lines to Europe could have more socioeconomic and environmental benefits than building it on the other side of the Mediterranean.