ISRAEL: Emergency plan will not solve energy shortage

Via Friday-Lunch Club

OXFAN: Excerpts:

Electricity production capacity is about 11,000 megawatts (MW). During peak periods, reserve capacity is only 5%. Moreover, electricity usage is growing almost in parallel with growth in GDP. Even disregarding anticipated expansion in the use of electric cars (which could use up to 10% of electricity within ten years) and the use of desalination plants to double water production to 600 million cubic metres (using 3 kilowatt hours of electricity per cubic metre), electricity usage will increase by an estimated 20% by 2020..... even if all the privately owned production plants come on stream as planned (which seems unlikely), Israel will face shortages. Another crisis is inevitable by 2021 ..... Israel is a world leader in solar energy use. .... However, so far only two tenders, each for the production of 250 MW, have been let. A major problem is that this option requires 2-4 square kilometres per 100 MW of production -- too much for such a small country.

Atomic and hydroelectric. That leaves only two other options, both problematic:

1. Atomic. Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau recently suggested that Israel should build an atomic power plant by 2021. However, this would be very expensive, since shoreline space is scarce so cooling water would have to be piped to an inland site. Also, the area is very seismically active and the safest place for an atomic plant is deep in the Negev desert. The twin threats of earthquakes and hostile attacks mean that it would have to be specially reinforced at very high cost. Engineers have suggested waiting until '4th generation' breeder reactors become available around 2035. These would be safer and require no water for cooling, and would also eliminate the need to find a place to store nuclear waste.

2. Hydroelectric. Israel has long discussed using the 400-metre drop from the Mediterranean or Gulf of Aqaba to the Dead Sea to produce hydroelectric power. Among its many advantages, it would help to refill the Dead Sea, which is shrinking 1 metre per year. However, Israel could not build a canal without Palestinian and Jordanian permission, which is currently unlikely for political reasons..... Jordan also has a severe water shortage and is carrying out an experimental project, using a pipe to bring seawater to the Dead Sea. If the experiment succeeds, a large border canal and a hydroelectric plant would have to be built in conjunction with the Israelis. However, while resolving problems for both countries, this would connect Israel's electrical net up to the Jordanian one. Jordan is already in a grid with Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, which have consistently vetoed any connection between their lines and the Israeli system. ..."

(below, the Hasbani in Lebanon: An israeli 'dream'...')

Posted by G, Z, or B at 8:48 PM

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