Tropes

ec.europa.eu 2015 0000567.txt

#ENEA-MATS#Egypt taps into solar#Fotolia 2012a#12.5 million EU-funded project in thecountry aims at taking the first tentativesteps to fulfilling this promise by exploitingthe abundance of solar energy and providingadequate local requirements for power andheat. The Multipurpose Applications by Thermodynamicsolar or MATS project began asrecently as July 2011. Within 42 months thisambitious initiative intends to build a plantcapable of producing electricity heat coolingand desalinated water by using solar energyintegrated with other energy sources whichare available locally. The MATS project is divided into three phases. The first phase will see each component of thesystem being developed via experimentationand numerical modelling while the secondwill involve the construction of the actual plant near Alexandria on the Mediterraneancoast. The last phase will be devoted toexperimental demonstration in the plantwhich is expected to produce each year morethan 3. 000 MWH of electricity and about8. 900 MWH of thermal energy. The Concentrating Solar power (CSP) technologydue to be used in the plant has beendeveloped by ENEA the Italian national agencyfor new technologies energy and sustainableeconomic development. The technology willuse molten salts as heat transfer fluid and willproduce heat and power from solar sourcesintegrated with renewable fuels such asbiomass biogas and industrial residues. he thermal energy produced in this plantwill be the energy source in a desalinationunit as well as for the heating and coolingof the surrounding areasays MATS Projectco-ordinator Fabrizio Fabrizi. he plant willproduce energy n demanddue to theintegration with a backup system containingvarious alternative fuels. This makes thesystem flexible and allows for continuouspower production. The MATS project brings together partnersfrom the research and industry fields ofvarious countries. Working alongside Italyenea there are research partners from Franceunited Kingdom Germany and indeed Egypt. In addition industrial partners from Italy andegypt will feature. t is expected that the work carried outover the coming years will validate the newtechnology in Egypt which as we all knowis a perfect location for solar irradiationays Fabrizi. And it is not only Egypt thatstands to benefit. ll things going well thisapproach may well be replicated across themediterraneanhe adds. The project replication would in fact see themats project spreading even more good newsacross the Mediterranean region. Technologytransfer skills training and job creationare just some of the future benefits beingmentioned u

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