Aldali, Yasser, Henderson, Douglas and Muneer, Tariq (2009) Prospects for large-scale solar thermal electricity generation from the LIBYAN desert: technical feasibility. In: Proceedings of the ASME 2009 3rd International Conference on Energy Sustainability. ASME, pp. 517-525. ISBN 978-0-7918-4890-6

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Abstract/Description

The Great Sahara desert covers the entire range of Libyan longitude 11o 44’ to 23o 58’ E and a latitude range of 24o 17’ through to 30o 31’N, thus covering an area of 1,750,000 sq km and 88% of this land is desert. The authors have measured hourly solar radiation at Kufra oasis (24o 17’N, 23o 15’E) within the Libyan Desert and found it to be a most reliable and consistent energy resource - the rain fall averages a few mm every 30 years. With no cloud cover throughout the year, the measured noon clearness-index often exceeding 0.84 and availability of large volumes of potable water from underground aquifers, large-scale electrical generation warrants a serious feasibility study. This article presents the technical feasibility for Cylindrical Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) thermal energy conversion.

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