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Sebkha Tah, also named as Sabkhat Tah, Sebja Tah or Sebjet Tah, [1] is a sabkha in southern Morocco. At 55 metres below sea level it is the lowest point of the country. [2] It is located close to Atlantic Ocean and the border with Western Sahara. The main city in the area is Tarfaya.
A project plans to combine the high wind potential of the Tarfaya region and the difference in level between the ocean and the sebkha to produce electrical energy on demand. The water drained from the ocean would feed hydraulic turbines before reaching the Sebkha Tah 55 meters below. Part of the energy produced by wind turbines, when available, would be used to power pumps returning the water stored in the basin to the ocean. [3] The power plant would have an installed capacity of 500 MW. [4]
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery to end users or its storage.
Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is a renewable energy technology that harnesses the temperature difference between the warm surface waters of the ocean and the cold depths to run a heat engine to produce electricity. It is a unique form of clean energy generation that has the potential to provide a consistent and sustainable source of power. Although it has challenges to overcome, OTEC has the potential to provide a consistent and sustainable source of clean energy, particularly in tropical regions with access to deep ocean water.
Cape Juby is a cape on the coast of southern Morocco, near the border with Western Sahara, directly east of the Canary Islands.
Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation. Today, wind power is generated almost completely with wind turbines, generally grouped into wind farms and connected to the electrical grid.
Tidal power or tidal energy is harnessed by converting energy from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity using various methods.
Tarfaya is a coastal Moroccan town, located at the level of Cape Juby, in western Morocco, on the Atlantic coast. It is located about 890 km southwest of the capital Rabat, and around 100 km from Laayoune and Lanzarote, in the far east of the Canary Islands. During the colonial era, Tarfaya was a Spanish colony known as Villa Bens. It was unified with Morocco in 1958 after the Ifni War, which started one year after the independence of other regions of Morocco.
A floating wind turbine is an offshore wind turbine mounted on a floating structure that allows the turbine to generate electricity in water depths where fixed-foundation turbines are not feasible. Floating wind farms have the potential to significantly increase the sea area available for offshore wind farms, especially in countries with limited shallow waters, such as Spain, Portugal, Japan, France and the United States' West Coast. Locating wind farms further offshore can also reduce visual pollution, provide better accommodation for fishing and shipping lanes, and reach stronger and more consistent winds.
Community wind projects are locally owned by farmers, investors, businesses, schools, utilities, or other public or private entities who utilize wind energy to support and reduce energy costs to the local community. The key feature is that local community members have a significant, direct financial stake in the project beyond land lease payments and tax revenue. Projects may be used for on-site power or to generate wholesale power for sale, usually on a commercial-scale greater than 100 kW.
Morocco's energy policy is set independently by two agencies of the government: the Office of Hydrocarbons and Mining (ONHYM) which sets domestic oil policy, and the Office National de l'Electricité (ONE), which sets policy with regard to electricity. The two major weaknesses of the energy policy of Morocco are the lack of coordination between these two agencies and the lack of development of domestic energy sources.
In terms of wind power development, Morocco enjoys quite favourable wind resource patterns, both in the northern part of the country near Tanger and to the west where certain regions benefit from regular trade winds.
Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of capacity installed. Offshore wind farms are also less controversial than those on land, as they have less impact on people and the landscape.
Marine energy or marine power refers to the energy carried by ocean waves, tides, salinity, and ocean temperature differences. The movement of water in the world's oceans creates a vast store of kinetic energy, or energy in motion. Some of this energy can be harnessed to generate electricity to power homes, transport and industries.
As of 2019, renewable energy in Morocco covered 35% of the country’s electricity needs.
A tidal farm is a group of tidal stream generators used for production of electric power. The potential of tidal farms is limited by the number of suitable sites across the globe as there are niche requirements to make a tidal farm cost effective and environmentally conscious.
The U.S. state of Massachusetts has vast wind energy resources offshore, as well as significant resources onshore. The 2016 update to the states's Clean Energy and Climate Plan had a goal of reducing 1990 baseline greenhouse gas emissions levels by 25% by 2020. Current goals include installing 3,500 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind power in the state by 2035. However, as of Q4 2021 the state had only 120 MW of wind powered electricity generating capacity, responsible for generating 0.9% of in-state electricity production. The state has awarded contracts to two offshore projects, the 800 MW Vineyard Wind project and 804 MW Mayflower Wind project. Construction began on the Vineyard Wind 1 project on November 18, 2021, after a long fight for approval. Commonwealth Wind was selected for development in 2021, but the developer has attempted to cancel the project due to increased costs. There are eight projects planned for off the southern coast of Massachusetts, though some will deliver power to Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.
A tidal stream generator, often referred to as a tidal energy converter (TEC), is a machine that extracts energy from moving masses of water, in particular tides, although the term is often used in reference to machines designed to extract energy from the run of a river or tidal estuarine sites. Certain types of these machines function very much like underwater wind turbines and are thus often referred to as tidal turbines. They were first conceived in the 1970s during the oil crisis.
Nareva is an energy company in Morocco wholly owned by the SNI, the holding company of king Mohammed VI.
Tarfaya Wind Farm is a wind farm in Morocco, located in 20 km from Tarfaya. It was developed by Tarec, a 50/50 joint venture of Nareva Holding and International Power Ltd. Tarfaya Wind Farm is owned and operated by a 50:50 joint venture between the GDF SUEZ and Nareva Holding and it is Africa's 2nd largest capacity wind farm after Lake Turkana Wind Project, with 131 wind turbines, each generating 2.3 Megawatts of power, and a total installed capacity of 301 MW. It was on the list of ten “Most Outstanding African Projects in 2015”, a ranking by Jeune Afrique magazine. The park was commissioned in December 2014 after two years of work and investment of 5 billion dirhams. Its constructor and operator is Tarec, which sells the power generated to the National Electricity Office.
Ocean Wind was a proposed utility-scale 2,248 MW offshore wind farm to be located on the Outer Continental Shelf approximately 15 miles (24 km) off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was being developed by Ørsted US Offshore Wind in conjunction with Public Service Enterprise Group (PSE&G). Construction and commissioning were planned for the mid-2020s. The closed Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station and B.L. England Generating Station would provide transmission points for energy generated by the wind farm.
27°42′47″N12°46′37″W / 27.713°N 12.777°W