Engineering Congress on Alternative Energy Applications
Volume 1, January 2009, Pages 300 - 309
1 January 2009
Abstract
Settling the desert has long been an Egyptian dream. Dictated by the population needs, future hopes, and a broader vision for a better life, desert development has widely been considered a national goal. Numerous studies have discussed the future of the Egyptian desert development as "Egypt 2020" by Rageh, and the "Development Corridor" by Farouk El-Baz. Studying the international trends related to sustainable development and renewable energies utilization has shown a gap between the entire national trends and the relevant international strategies that call for an optimum utilization of the "Very Large Scale Photovoltaics" (VLS-PV) in the world's desert. Such new visions may help create new productive sustainable communities in the desert while providing for a new desert development scenarios. The research suggests an integrated approach to practical utilization of VLS-PV guided with the national visions of the future of prospected desert communities in Egypt. It further presents the main database required to formalize a guideline to the utilization of Photovoltaics in new desert communities, through a proposal titled 'Green Mines Community'.