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Energy Transition in Metropolises Rural Areas and Deserts Al Kabbani Full Chapter
Energy Transition in Metropolises Rural Areas and Deserts Al Kabbani Full Chapter
Energy Transition in
Metropolises, Rural
Areas and Deserts
Louis Boisgibault
Fahad Al Kabbani
First published 2020 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as
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Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Foreword
“Think global, act local” for an ecological transition in the service of man
and therefore of the planet, such was the major challenge of the 20th Century
which, to paraphrase André Malraux, French novelist and Minister of
Cultural Affairs, was “to be of ecology or not to be”.
The many international meetings over more than half a century have
enabled experts from all over the world to reflect and propose further growth
that is more respectful of the environment and the dignity of human beings,
but also, through a wealth of literature, for academics from all continents to
exchange, discuss and debate on sustainable development.
On the other hand, the local dimension is less studied. More than ideas, it
is the actions that must be observed, analyzed and evaluated. From this point
of view, the book written by my two former PhD students is very timely.
The approach, far from being dogmatic, is first and foremost practical and
empirical. This work is the result of many months of investigation by the
authors on the different fields they studied. However, the choice of these
territories allows them to have a fairly universal view of the issue: developed
countries (France), developing countries (Senegal and Morocco), emerging
viii Energy Transition in Metropolises, Rural Areas and Deserts
countries (Saudi Arabia), metropolises (Lille and Riyadh) and rural areas
(Pays de Fayence), temperate zones and deserts. All the cases encountered at
the local level were perceived by the two authors who complement each
other admirably in their research. Moreover, the cultural dimension has not
been forgotten, even if it is reduced to well-chosen examples.
It is with great satisfaction that I write this foreword, as, having been a
thesis supervisor, it is comforting to see that two of my most brilliant
students have joined forces to tackle this vast subject essential for the future
of the world, the ecological transition. I hope that this book will meet with
the success it deserves, because it provides an innovative and precise insight
into “local action”, without which the ecological transition cannot be
achieved.
Jean GIRARDON
Professor Emeritus
Sorbonne Université
Preface
This book analyzes how the energy transition can be carried out in three
types of areas: metropolitan areas, rural areas and deserts. It is based on
research carried out in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and Lille (France) for
metropolitan areas; in the Pays de Fayence (France) and Bokhol (Senegal)
for rural areas; in the deserts of the Sahara (Ouarzazate) and Arabia. The
challenges of the energy transition are studied taking into account the
constraints of each type of space, the projects carried out and technological
innovations. How best to combine large connected power plants, production
systems for self-consumption, and energy efficiency with energy
transmission and distribution networks that must become intelligent? Should
spatial planning be organized on the basis of objectives and decisions taken
at supranational level (COP21, major directives) or should local initiative be
encouraged, depending on the resources instantly available? Lessons are
drawn from the fields studied to provide objectives and solutions for
Europe, the Middle East and the African region in order to move from
carbonaceous energy resources (oil, natural gas and coal) and nuclear to
renewable energies without opposing the energy sectors. This book is
illustrated with photos and color maps.
The two co-authors, of French and Saudi origin, met in mid-2010 in the
Geography and Planning Research Laboratory of the Université Paris-
Sorbonne (Paris IV). The Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) became
Sorbonne Université on January 1, 2018 through its merger with the
Université Pierre et Marie Curie. This laboratory was known as the Spaces,
Nature and Culture (ENEC), Joint Research Unit Sorbonne Université /
French centre for scientific research and has itself evolved as part of this
merger. The co-authors conducted their doctoral research with the same
x Energy Transition in Metropolises, Rural Areas and Deserts
Louis BOISGIBAULT
Fahad AL KABBANI
October 2019
Acknowledgments
The initial research results and figures have been updated for this book.
The dialog was resumed with the key players of the fields studied in Riyadh,
Lille, Fayence and Ouarzazate. For Bokhol and the Arabian Desert, as the
projects accelerated considerably from 2016 onwards, it was necessary to
conduct a press review and contact stakeholders to request additional
information and photos. This information was cross-referenced to obtain the
most accurate information possible, analyze the issues, make relevant
comparisons of local actions and find appropriate solutions. Warm thanks
are first addressed to all the key players in these six fields, who were asked
right up to the last minute, for the documents they have authorized us to
publish here.
The co-authors are now on postdoctoral trips together to get to know the
colleague’s fields and to continue to promote their research. All this would
not have been possible without the support of the professors of Sorbonne
Université and in particular Dr. Jean Girardon, who agreed to write the
foreword to the book, teachers from other institutions, university and
municipal libraries and families.
Sincere thanks are addressed to all those relatives who cannot be named
individually for fear of forgetting them.
List of Acronyms
GT Gigaton
HP Heat pump
kV Kilovolt
The word energy comes from the ancient Greek, energia, the force in
action. The dictionary characterizes it as a physical system, keeping the same
value during all internal transformations of the system (conservation law)
and expressing its ability to modify the state of other systems with which it
interacts. The units used in the international energy system are the joule (J),
the Watt-hour (Wh) and the ton of oil equivalent (TOE) due to the economic
and political significance of oil.
Energy sources can come from raw materials (Vidal 2017) such as
hydrocarbons (crude oil, natural gas and coal), uranium or natural
phenomena such as wind, sun, hot springs, organic matter fermentation, tides
and marine currents. These sources can be primary, i.e. directly from nature
such as wood, hydrocarbons, uranium, organic waste or secondary, i.e. from
human transformation such as electricity and gasoline. The energies used by
mankind have evolved over the centuries in different transitions due to the
discovery of new raw materials, the domestication of natural phenomena and
technological progress. The final energy is that which is delivered to and
consumed and paid for by the inhabitant.
The first problem is that thermal power plants have lost market share to
nuclear and renewable energies since 1972 and that the nuclear power plant
has a better load factor than the photovoltaic plant. The load factor is the
operating factor of a power plant. It is the ratio between the electrical energy
actually produced over a given period and the energy it would have
produced if it had operated at its maximum power during the same period.
However, the photovoltaic plant does not produce at night. The International
Energy Agency standardized the conversion by specifying that nuclear MWh
was equivalent to 0.2606 TOE and renewable MWh was equivalent to 0.086
TOE in primary energy balances.
The second problem is that fossil fuels do not undergo any increase in
coefficient. If a thermal regulation requires each new dwelling built to
consume less than 50 kWh of primary energy per square meter per year, this
implies that the electrical dwelling will be penalized by this coefficient
compared to the fossil dwelling, whereas it emits less than CO2/m2/year.
(Woessner 2014) along the Atlantic coast, the English Channel and the
North Sea. There are examples of these mills, which use the tides to operate,
on Île de Bréhat, Île Arz, Arzon, Trégastel and Pont-Aven in France but also
in Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and Belgium.
Coal mining was the driving force behind the industrial revolution of the
19th Century. Its extraction, through underground or open-air galleries, is an
essential economic activity that has marked the history of the research field
in the north of France chosen for this project, but also the European Union
and the world in general. Several techniques are used. The room and pillar
method consists of manually digging, consolidating the coal vein and its
ceiling by installing pillars that form underground chambers and galleries.
The long method consists of drilling the coal vein with a cutting machine
and recovering the ore by letting the ceiling collapse. The coal is then
brought to the surface, once by humans or animals, then by conveyors and
wagons, to be treated by immersing it in an appropriate liquid. Opencast
mining is more profitable and is carried out using giant excavators. The
treated coal is then transported to the consumption sites by road or ship.
Oil and gas exploration and production were later carried out in the 20th
Century. The discovery and exploitation of deposits has created a value
chain from upstream to downstream. The crude oil and natural gas extracted
only make sense if they are properly processed and transported to
consumption areas. A disconnection took place between production areas
(desert areas, rural areas in emerging countries, offshore) and consumer
areas (metropolitan areas and rurality in developed countries) and major
battles have been fought for access to springs (Chevalier 2004). The research
4 Energy Transition in Metropolises, Rural Areas and Deserts
sites in Saudi Arabia selected for this project have been disrupted by this
industry.
The downstream oil sector includes oil refining, i.e. the transformation of
crude oil from offshore fields into finished products (such as gasoline, diesel,
fuel oil and bitumen) and distribution. Distribution consists of storing
finished products, transporting them and organizing marketing to the end
customer. Generally speaking, crude oil is transported by ship or pipeline
from the production sites to the refineries. The pipeline requires significant
infrastructure investment. Its destination cannot be changed once the
construction is completed.
For natural gas, the logic is similar to the processing of extracted natural
gas and its transport. Its transport is more difficult than oil. It is carried out in
gaseous form by gas pipelines and in liquid form by LNG carriers. The
majors were less interested in natural gas fields because molecules were less
profitable to transport, especially when the field was small. The plants,
located near the extraction sites, were built to liquefy natural gas at −160°C
so that it would lose 600 times its volume. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is
loaded onto the LNG carriers and transported to other plants, which regasify
and odorize it so that it can be injected into the transmission and distribution
networks.
The civil nuclear sector has developed well since the 1970s. Its value
chain extends from uranium mining and transportation, particularly from
Niger, to the construction of nuclear power plants, the manufacture and
reprocessing of fuel and the conditioning of radioactive waste. The European
and Saudi Arabian research sites selected for the book are heavily impacted
by this sector, with the commissioning of reactors in northern France in the
1980s and the construction of new reactors in Saudi Arabia, i.e. with a
40-year delay.
The crystal is cut into ingots to work at a scale of 200 µm and form
photovoltaic cells. For thin films, silicon is fixed in thin layers of only a few
micrometers on a glass or plastic support.
Finally, the cognitive sciences aim to describe, explain and simulate the
mechanisms of animal and human thought. They model complex
information processing systems capable of acquiring, storing, using and
transmitting knowledge. This artificial intelligence helps to consume less
energy, to better appreciate local consumption to adjust production and to
preserve the planet’s limited and non-renewable hydrocarbon resources.
Marine energies are made up of six sectors, namely tidal energy, wave
energy, current energy, ocean thermal energy, osmotic energy and wind
Three Types of Space for Analyzing Energy Transition 7
energy (large offshore wind). The use of algae to produce biofuels that can
be used to power the internal combustion engine of vehicles is currently
being studied. These energies are still marginal in the global energy mix.
Their potential should not be underestimated as they can benefit coastal
areas. Do they benefit metropolitan areas, rural areas or deserts? We can
have metropolises, rural areas and deserts by the sea that benefit from this
electricity, which is repatriated to land by cable, and then fed into the grid or
possibly self-consumed.
Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy of the wind into mechanical
energy, which is then most often transformed into electricity. This
mechanical energy has been used for centuries to grind grain in traditional
mills. It is transformed into electricity by modern horizontal and vertical axis
wind turbines. These wind turbines can be small for urban and rural
buildings. Others are very large, with a mast longer than 150 m, a nacelle for
mechanical components and a rotor to receive the blades. They can only be
installed in parks located far from residential areas.
Solar energy can take many forms. The French physicist Edmond
Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect in 1839. This is one of the
effects that is implemented in photovoltaic cells from solar radiation. It is
8 Energy Transition in Metropolises, Rural Areas and Deserts