EnerMENA - Towards Sustainable Implementation of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Technologies in the MENA Region

1. Introduction

The MENA region has a huge potential for the implementation of such technology due to its excellent solar resource conditions. The enerMENA project takes essential steps to prepare the ground towards a sustainable realization of CSP power plants in the MENA region.

Funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, the project was initiated and is executed by the Institute of Solar Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), a pioneer in the field of CSP technology in cooperation with several partners in the EU-MENA region.

The aim of enerMENA is to provide knowledge and practical experience to CSP specialists and stakeholders in the MENA region. By this it contributes both to the optimization of the construction and the operation of solar thermal power plants.

Furthermore, the enerMENA project engages its partners in desert specific R&D activities to develop efficiency improvement measures. it offers also professional training courses for different target groups. With it's professional training program, enerMENA adresses engineers and technicians working on site as well as researchers, , project developers and University professorsand students in the partner countries.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) works jointly with over 45 partners from Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan to realize the objectives of the enerMENA project. Among partners are engineers, skilled workers, and decision makers at energy centers, national energy agencies, universities, engineering companies and related ministries.

A network of CSP professionals and specialists is being established and supported in the framework of the project to coordinate future activities.

The enerMENA project consists of three different modules:

With it's broad offer of training courses, technical support and R&D projects, the enerMENA project strengthens the EU-MENA partnership in the field of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and brings all stakeholders into an advanced stage of cooperation.

2. enerMENA Capacity Building Program

Strong emphasis was put on the preparation of appropriate training materials to satisfy the specific needs of the different target groups, e.g. field engineers, project planners, professionals and university students.

2.1. enerMENA Training and Teaching Materials

Strong emphasis was put on the preparation of appropriate training materials to satisfy the specific needs of the different target groups, e.g. field engineers, project planners, professionals and university students.

1) enerMENA CSP Teaching Materials

2) enerMENA Project Planning and Development Training Materials

Project planning materials describing the typical structure and development process of CSP projects in the MENA region were prepared in the framework of enerMENA project. These materials summarize the different phases of the project development process and explain the required expertise. Special attention is paid to the local share in several MENA countries today and the necessities to increase the local share in the future.

The yield analysis of CSP plants is an important task in the project development process since it influences the expectation of the economic viability of a project significantly. Today, every project developer, EPC contractor or consultant predicts the plant performance with its own models and programs. Only a few appropriate software tools are freely available. Within enerMENA, the basic requirements and modeling approaches for the performance prediction of a parabolic trough solar thermal power plant are documented and part of the training materials.

3) enerMENA Technical Course Materials

Training materials for engineers and technicians have been prepared by DLR specialists. The materials comprise theoretical and practical exercises about solar tower, parabolic trough, Fresnel technology, dish/Sterling systems, meteorological measurements, solar resource-assessment, optical efficiency of solar concentrating systems, optimization, deflectometry, photogrammetry, thermal performance measurements, project planning and yield analysis with the yield analysis software ‘greenius'.

4) enerMENA e-Learning Materials

Moreover, in order to reach more audiences with technical background, professional video tutorials were prepared in the framework of enerMENA as e-Learning media that will be used for faster dissemination of knowledge and for remote training courses