220 The Chances Khalil RES
220 The Chances Khalil RES
220 The Chances Khalil RES
Abstract Libya is the largest oil producer in North Africa. The future electricity needs for Libya and its neighbors and can
oil and natural gas exportation contributes to the most of the even be delivered to Europe through High-Voltage Direct
Libyan economical revenue. Some industrial sectors in Libya Current (HVDC) links. However is blessed with such a huge
essentially rely on this oil. One major sector is electricity renewable energy resources, their share in electricity
generation which uses gas and fuel to operate the turbines in the production is negligible.
generation stations. Libya currently produces energy of 33 TWH
to meet the demand on the local electricity market. The demand Libya currently relies entirely on the oil and natural gas for
on energy will substantially increase in the near future as a result electricity production. These two conventional resources are
of the economic development in order to build new infrastructure limited and depleted. As the energy demands are increasing
in Libya after the massive destruction that happened during the rapidly in Libya which can affect the oil and natural gas
last four years. This will lead to more consumption of oil and gas production. This can lead to decrease in the country revenue.
which causes a reduction in the national economical revenue and This pushed the energy authority toward a rapid and not well
more carbon dioxide emission. Therefore, Libya should use its planned investment in renewable energy. According to the
alternative energy supplies to cover some of its load REAOL (Renewable Energy Authority of Libya) the renewable
requirements. The location of Libya on the high centered energy share is expected to reach 10% of energy demand in
radiation area as well as its long coastal line on the 2025 [3]. The planned projects are mainly solar and wind
Mediterranean make it one of the countries that have very high energy systems. The development of this new technology faces
potential for solar and wind energy. There are other available
many barriers. All the planned projects are financing by the
renewable sources in Libya such as geothermal, biomass and
tidal waves, however, all these sources have less potential in
General Electricity Company Of Libya (GECOL) which is a
Libya. In this paper analytical data for the current and future state-owned company with no room to the privatization or
energy situations are presented. Challenges and obstacles faced competition. Due to the inconvenient planning some renewable
by the renewable energy sector in Libya are briefly discussed and energy projects are delayed or suspended. The lack of the
finally some recommendations for promoting the renewable metrological data makes the planning and the decision making
energy in Libya are summarized. a cumbersome task. Additionally, there are not any good
surveys or detailed studies about the current energy situation
Keywords-component; Libya; renewable energy; solar energy; and demands evolution in Libya. With the expected increased
wind energy renewable share, many problems could arise. For example the
impact of the renewable energy penetration on the Libyan grid
I. INTRODUCTION which has not been studied yet. Because of the aforementioned
reasons and the lack of the awareness and experience in the
Although, the renewable energy has been used in Libya renewable energy technology, this new technology is still
back to the seventies, the main applications are for powering viewed suspicious. We can conclude that Libya suffers from
small remote loads such as communication repeaters, rural poor research in the area of renewable energy. As a first step
electrifications, water pumping and Cathodic Protection for the the authors start with the analysis of the energy current
oil pipelines in the desert. With the ever increasing demands on situation and then a number of energy future scenario will be
the energy, the renewable energy sector in Libya planned a analyzed [4]. In this paper analytical data for the current and
number of projects in the last decade. The proposed projects future energy situations are briefly presented. Simple models
are mainly solar energy and wind energy systems, which are for prediction the energy demands and the oil and natural gas
the best alternatives renewable energy in Libya. For example, prices are used through this work. The challenges and obstacles
the average solar radiation in Libya is around 7.5 kWh/m2/day faced by the renewable energy sector in Libya are discussed. In
with about 3000 to 3500 sunshine hours per year [1]. The order to promote the application of renewable energy a number
average wind speed is roughly between 6 m/s and 7.5 m/s at 40 of recommendations are made. To the best of the knowledge of
m height [2]. This huge amount of sunshine and wind the authors there is no detailed study or analysis to the current
distributed over an area of 1,750,000 km2 can provide the energy situation and the expected scenarios for the renewable
ICRERA 2015
4th International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications Palermo, Italy, 22-25 Nov 2015
energy in Libya and we think that the work in this paper is the
first step in the right direction.
Figure 3. The natural gas production and consumption from 2000 to 2013 [5]
ICRERA 2015
4th International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications Palermo, Italy, 22-25 Nov 2015
Figure 5. Types and percentage of gas and fuel used in electricity generation
in 2012
ICRERA 2015
4th International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications Palermo, Italy, 22-25 Nov 2015
from the daily Libyan oil export which is about 1.3 million
8
barrel on average. This will cost the country around 19.4
7 billion a year. This means that there will be a substantial
5.981
reduction in oil exportation as a result of electricity usage
6 5.759 unless the renewable energy technology is adopted. The use of
The Power Consumption, MW
5.515
5.282
clean energy such as wind and solar in electricity generation
5 4.756
4.420 will also lead to the reduction of carbon dioxide emission to
4.005
4 3.857 some extent. The saving in Libya oil and gas resources is not
3.612
3.341 beneficial only to Libya but to the whole world.
3
2
IV. RENEWABLE ENERGY IN LIBYA
Libya planned to make the share of the renewable energy in
1
2020 to be 20% of the generated power. The planned projects
0
are mainly solar and wind energy systems. Libya will generate
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 around 20% of its power in 2020 from solar energy. This will
be around 3 GW (20% of around 15 GW). However the current
share of renewable energy in Libya is negligible.
Figure 8. The energy consumption over the last 10 years
The demand on energy will substantially increase in the A. Solar Energy Resource
near future in an exponential growth as shown in Figure 9 as a The Geographical location of Libya makes it one of the
result of economic development. This will lead to more countries bless with high Solar Energy. Solar energy is
consumption of oil and gas which causes a reduction in the believed to be the most important and feasible renewable
national economical revenue and more carbon dioxide energy source in Libya. Libya lies within the most favorable
emission. The expected increase in electricity demands is sunny zone (between 150 N and 350 N). The rain falls is below
shown in Fig. 9. 150 mm in most of the country. For example, the average solar
radiation in Libya is around 7.5 kWh/m2/day with about 3000
140 to 3500 sunshine hours per year [1]. The solar radiation in
different cities in Libya is shown in Fig. 10.
120
9
100 Benghazi
Expected Load, GWh
Tripoli
80 8 Ejdabia
Jalo
Kufra
60 7
Gadamus
Sebha
k Wh/ m 2 / day
40 6 Shahat
20
5
0
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 4
3
Figure 9. Expected load demand for the next 20 years
2
As can be expected from Figure 9, The load demand for the Jan Fab Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
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4th International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications Palermo, Italy, 22-25 Nov 2015
Max Laod, MW
30 5
8
Wind Speed, (m/s)
2
The GECOL considered only centralized large scale
renewable energy plants in their plans. This is insufficient. In
0 order to promote the renewable technology small and medium
Tripoli Sirt Ejdabia Benghazi Derna Tobroq Shahat Gadamas Sebha Jalu Kufra
scale projects should be considered too. Depending on some
studies for the load of around 75 kWh locates more than 1.2
Figure 13. The monthly average wind speed in different cities in Libya Km from 11 KV grid it is economical and most convenient to
use PV system [9].
Back to Fig. 11 the peak in load demand can be shaved in
the summer with the penetration of solar energy as the solar V. DIFFICULTIES AND OBSTACLES
energy is at its best. In the winter where there is a shortage in
the hours of sunshine the wind energy takes the main role for The electricity in Libya is subsidized because the country
adopted a communist economical system since 1969. By the
ICRERA 2015
4th International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications Palermo, Italy, 22-25 Nov 2015
time, the consequences of this policy are clear in the irrational and the estimated energy of the planned renewable energy
use of electricity by most of the Libyans. Additionally, the projects. Furthermore the forecasting of oil and gas prices with
peculiarity of the weather and the inefficient design of the addition to the expected prices of energy generated from wind
homes made the air-conditioning unavoidable. It can be and solar sources must be used for future studies. Also the
concluded that the increase energy demands in not a result of most suitable renewable technology that will be most suitable
the country development but rather a consequence of the for the Libyan should be investigated.
inefficient use of the energy.
VII. CONCLUDING REMARKS
VI. RECOMMENDATIONS The electric energy demand is expected to grow very
Libya should initiate a subsidizing plan and legislations for rapidly in the next few years; The perfect weather in Libya
renewable energy which includes: with a plenty of land hold the promise to be one of the leading
countries in renewable energy production. The share of
(1) Creation of the awareness among the people of the long renewable energy technology in Libya still very low despite the
and short term impacts of the wasteful use of electricity. This fact that Libya location is optimum for exploiting this
can be done through the social media and TV channels. technology. There is a great potential for utilizing, home grid
(2) Legislations and laws for using low power electrical connected photovoltaic systems, large scale grid connected
appliances. This can be achieved through encouraging people electricity generation using Wind farms, and concentrated
to use the energy efficiently. photovoltaic system CPS. Solar energy resources in particular
can be of great source of energy for Libya after oil and natural
(3) Added taxes on the wasteful consumption of the gas. Renewable energy resources offer good opportunities for
electricity. After establishing the law and order the country technology transfer and international cooperation. Energy
should put added taxes on the irrational use of electricity. efficiency can be implemented in both energy consumption and
(4) Initialize the renewable energy market form small-scale production sides. Libya should start emergent plan to increase
and medium scale projects with fix on simple, fast and easy its share from renewable energy.
installations.
(5) Attract local and foreign investors into the Libyan REFERENCES
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