SOLAR POWER GENERATION AND WIRELESS POWER TRANSMISSION: A FEASIBILITY STUDY ON POWER GENERATION AND TRANSMISSION IN HOT ARID

REGIONS
1,2

S. Sheik Mohammed1, Thabit Sultan Mohammed2 , and A. Shereen Siddhara3 Faculty of Engineering, Dhofar University, 211 Salalah, P.O Box 2509, Sultanate of Oman. 3 PG Scholar, St. Xaviers Catholic College of Engineering, Nagercoil, Tamilnadu, India. E mail- sheik@du.edu.om1, tsultan@du.edu.om2, shersidz@gmail.com3
economic development is now being seriously considered by governments, businesses and the general public. In order not to harm our natural living spaces and threaten their resilience, a renewed compatibility would require a suitable form of energy alternatives sources that should be independent, easily accessible, and low in cost and should be environmentally clean. Renewable energy, and in particular solar energy, could be used to power our growing civilization as well as providing fresh water from desalination without harming our natural living environment.
In section 2, we present an overview of the power consumption and demand in Middle East countries. The potential of solar power in the Middle East is discussed in section 3 and section 4 covers the renewable energy project in the Middle East and other Arab countries. The concept of WPT system and its advantages are discussed in section 5. Section 6 presents SPS system. The discussion is concluded in section 7.

ABSTRACT The solar power generation, and its development in hot arid regions, as well as the concept of Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) are presented in this paper. The present scenario of power demand in gulf regions, environmental changes due to power generation from fossil fuels are described. Various projects and development activities carried out across the hot arid regions on solar power generation are presented. The advantages, disadvantages, possibilities of implementation and the researches on wireless power transmission are also discussed. Key words: Solar power generation, Wireless power transmission (WPT), Space solar power (SSP), Gulf Countries, Renewable sources.

1. INTRODUCTION
Electricity has been part of our lives. Electricity is an extremely flexible form of energy, and has been adapted to a huge, and growing, number of uses. It has brought many things that surely have made many wonders and life would seem so hard without it. Various resources such as coal, petroleum and nuclear are used for generation of electricity and it has been changing time to time due to various factors which make them better from one another. The prices of resources were very low in the 20th century. The scenario has changed, and the resources are vanishing. For example, the Gulf Region (GCC countries), such as Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia suffers scarcity of suitable resources for power generation as they have an estimates of only 40 years of reserve of oil left [1]. Apart from the factor of cost and demand, there are some environmental factors such as; green house effect and global warming due to the use of coal, oil and nuclear power. The concentration on the use of fossil fuels for energy supply is the main threat for the stability of the global climate system and our natural living conditions. To conserve our globe, the scientific community gave evidence that mankind has to decrease the green house gases emissions, mainly CO2 and methane, by 60 - 70% as a minimum until the year 2050 [2].The inevitability of raising climate change issues to the top of the list for social and

2. POWER CONSUMPTION AND DEMAND IN

MIDDLE EAST The power consumption is anticipated to grow from a predictable 179 terra watt per hour (TWh) in the year 2009 to 208 TWh by the end of the year 2014. This increase will be accompanied with a growing power generation, given that there will be a 5.1% average growth per year, from 2010 to 2014, in the generation of electricity [3]. Analysis shows that by 2050 electricity consumption in the Middle East (including the Gulf countries) and other North African countries is likely to be around 3000 TWh/year. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, Energy consumption is growing at an average rate of 10% per annum, more than double the global average of just 4%. Power consumption rose in the year 2009 by 15%, while the number of electricity consumers rose by 19%. Power demand in Abu Dhabi alone is expected to increase by 80% by 2012 and the consumption of energy in the UAE is forecast to triple by 2020 [4]. Similarly, in the meantime the demand for energy in Saudi Arabia is increasing by 8% on a yearly basis. As a result, the consumption is anticipated to rise threefold in the future years [3].

3.

SOLAR POWER IN MIDDLE EAST

As a way to reduce carbon emissions and to take part of the social responsibility, there are opportunities for renewable energy in the Middle East, in general, and the Gulf oil-rich countries (UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait), in specific. The potential for solar power generation in the Gulf is enormous, where it is estimated that each square kilometre of land receiving every year an amount of solar energy that is equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of crude oil. Yet in spite of this, solar power has not traditionally featured in the Gulf nations renewable energy mix, with sceptics citing that it is unable to compete with the low cost of readily available hydrocarbons [5]. Literature estimations show that 1% of the area of global deserts would be sufficient to produce the entire annual primary energy consumption of humankind as electric power. Within six hours, deserts receive more energy from the sun than humankind consumes within a year.The hot deserts cover around 36 million km (UNEP, 2006) of the 149 million km of the earths land surface. The deserts of the earth can play a key role, where the solar energy arriving per 1 year on 1 km desert is on average 2.2 Terawatt hours (TWh), yielding 80 Million Terawatt hours/year. This is a factor of 750 more than the fossil energy consumption of 2005, and there is still a factor of 250 if this demand would triple until 2050 [6]. Deserts can be considered as the places with the best solar radiation conditions and with the least possible impact of collector deployment onto the biosphere on earth. In deserts, clean power can be produced by solar thermal power plants in a truly sustainable way and at any volume of conceivable demand. To save further energy, power can be transmitted with low losses by High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) lines to more than 90% of the worlds population [7].

A similar concept is behind Qatar's 2.6-billiondollar Energy City project, a green energy business district scheduled for completion by 2012 [9]. The King Abdullah City Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE) that is based in Riyadh is among the main developments in the region that encourages renewable energy projects. The new launch consists of the National Solar Systems 2 MW solar park found on the roof of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Other projects underway in Sudia Arabia are ranging from five megawatts (MW) and 10 MW solar facility projects [3]. Kuwait is working towards producing 5% of its energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020. Bahrain has also serious plans with investors to build a $1bn solar power project [10]. In other Arab countries, studies and projects are also emphasizing the need for the solar power generation. Jordan, for example is looking to produce 7% of its energy requirements through renewable sources by 2015. Egypt has announced a goal of 20% renewable power by 2020. Algeria is nearing completion of the world's first operational integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) power station. Morocco, which has no oil production of its own to speak of, recently unveiled a 9-billion-dollar project to produce 2,000 megawatts (MW) per year of solar power by 2020. Five solar power stations would produce 38% of the country's total power generation [9]. Gulf countries are stepping towards fully connecting their power networks as a grid. The first phase of the joint power grid for Gulf Cooperation Council countries was completed by the end of July 2009 with the linking of the grids of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. The United Arab Emirates and Oman will link to the grid in 2011. 5. WIRELESS POWER TRANSMISSION

4. RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS IN THE

MIDDLE EAST AND & ARAB COUNTRIES Projects of renewable energy in the Arab countries are growing. In this section, the initiatives and noticeable projects regarding renewable energy in the Gulf countries are first summarized, followed by projects and plants in the rest of the Arab countries. Abu Dhabi is currently building a plant with an annual production of cells capable of generating 10 megawatts and plans to build another, 100 megawatt solar thermal plant, in Madinat Zayed. Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, is building a 22-billion-dollar carbon-neutral city in the desert near Abu Dhabi to be powered entirely by renewable energies is looking to solar energy for 80% of the power needs [8].

Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) or Microwave Power Transmission (MPT) is the process that takes place in any system where electrical energy is transmitted from a power source to an electrical load without interconnecting wires. Wireless transmission is useful in cases where instantaneous or continuous energy transfer is needed but interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or transmission is impossible [11]. William C. Brown, the pioneer in wireless power transmission technology, has designed, developed and demonstrated a unit to show how power can be transferred through free space by microwaves. In 1961, Brown published the first paper proposing microwave energy for power transmission, and in 1964 he demonstrated a microwave-powered model helicopter that received all the power needed for flight from a microwave beam at 2.45 GHz[12]. Followed by that various research has been

conducted in Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) and the approaches to wireless power delivery are still emerging. The concept of Wireless Power Transmission System is explained with functional block diagram shown in Figure 1. In the transmission side, the microwave power source generates microwave power and the output power is controlled by electronic control circuits. The wave guide ferrite circulator which protects the microwave source from reflected power is connected with the microwave power source through the Coax Waveguide Adaptor. The tuner matches the impedance between the transmitting antenna and the microwave source. The attenuated signals will be then separated based on the direction of signal propagation by directional coupler. The transmitting antenna radiates the power uniformly through free space to the rectenna. In the receiving side, a rectenna receives the transmitted power and converts the microwave power into DC power. The impedance matching circuit and filter is provided to setting the output impedance of a signal source equal to the rectifying circuit. The rectifying circuit consists of Schottky barrier diodes converts the received microwave power into DC power. Wireless Power Transmission system would completely eliminates the existing high-tension power transmission line cables, towers and sub stations between the generating station and consumers and facilitates the interconnection of electrical generation plants on a global scale. The electrical energy can be economically transmitted without wires to any terrestrial distance. Loss of transmission is negligible level in the Wireless Power Transmission and the cost of transmission would be low.

According to the mentioned concept of the Solar Power Satellite energy system, giant satellites covered with vast arrays of solar cells are to be placed in Geo Synchronous Orbit (GEO) 22,300 miles above the Earth's equator. Each satellite will be illuminated by sunlight 24 hours a day for most of the year because of the 23" tilt of the Earths shadow. It is only during the equinox period in the spring and fall that they will pass through the shadow. They will be shadowed for less than 1% of the time during the year. Figure 2 illustrates the concept of Solar power Satellite. The solar cells will convert sunlight to electricity, which will then be changed to radio-frequency energy by a transmitting antenna on the satellite and beamed to a receiver site on Earth. It will be reconverted to electricity by the receiving antenna, and the power would then be routed into our normal electric distribution network for use here on the Earth. 7. CONCLUSION

Figure 1. Block Diagram of Wireless Power Transmission system

6. THE SOLAR POWER SATELLITE SYSTEM

A system that implements both solar power generation and wireless power transmission, as to secure clean power, was proposed by the pioneer, Dr. Peter Glaser of Arthur D. Little [13]. The concept of this proposal is to place large solar power satellites (SPS) in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) to generate solar energy and transmitting the energy to the earth as electromagnetic beam. This proposal was then followed by massive development of research in its field.

Electricity forms an essential part of our lives, and it is now widely used in huge and still growing number of uses. Generation of electricity depends on various resources such as; coal, oil, gas, and nuclear energy. These resources are either vanishing or being sources for sever pollution. Suitable forms of alternative energy sources that need to be low in cost, easily accessible, as well as environment friendly are being implemented, and more forms of such sources are proposed. Solar power generation is a form of renewable energy, which depends on systems transforming the energy of the sun light into electricity. Considering the large amount of energy they are receiving from the sun, deserts are rich areas. Arab Middle East, including the Gulf countries, which are mostly arid regions, can invest the energy their wide deserts are receiving from the sun to build solar power plants. Such plants are highly needed as the demand for electricity is increased in both developed and developing countries. Feasible methods of generating electricity can be further improved by a feasible approach for transmission. The wireless power transmission system is the proposed approach. Using this system, the existing high-tension power transmission lines, towers, and substations will be dramatically reduced or even totally eliminated. A system which is proposed in literature that can secure clean power and implementing both the solar power generation and wireless power transmission is referred to as the solar power satellite system.

8.

REFERENCES

[1] http://www.menainfra.com/article/Major-challengesfacing-Middle-Easts-power-community/ [2] K. Tpfer Decarbonisation of energy supply central challenge for mankind Clean Power from Deserts, The DESERTEC Concept for Energy, Water and Climate Security, WhiteBook 4th Edition, Feb 2009. [3]http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20090509 044 29/Oman's%20Solar%20Power%20Bid%20Attracts %20Intl%20Interest [4]http://www.middleeastelectricity.com/Power/PowerGene ration.html [5]http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/technicalarticles/transmission/mcclatchy-tribune/first-phase-ofgcc-power-grid-complete/index.shtml [6]G. Knies, A brief overview on Global Energy, Water and Carrying Capacity Perspectives Clean Power from Deserts, The DESERTEC Concept for Energy, Water and Climate Security, WhiteBook 4th Edition, Feb 2009. [7] His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan Community for a sustainable energy future, Clean Power

from Deserts, The DESERTEC Concept for Energy, Water and Climate Security, WhiteBook 4th Edition, Feb 2009. [8] http://archive.gulfnews.com/nation/Environment/ 10328596.html [9] http://www.renewablepowernews.com/archives/1885 [10]http://www.gulf-dailynews.com/NewsDetails.aspx? storyid=277796 [11] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer [12] W.C. Brown, J.R. Mims and N.I. Heenan, An Experimental Microwave-Powered Helicopter, 965 IEEE International Convention Record, Vol. 13, Part 5, pp.225235. [13] P.E. Glaser, "Power from the Sun: Its Future," Science, Vol. 162, 957961, 1968

Figure 2. Solar Power Satellite System