Syria has already launched the pre-qualification process for the 50-100 megawatt project, with bids due at the end of this month.
The wind power development would be part of a master plan for renewable energy and energy efficiency that the Syrian government is preparing in co-operation with the German Agency for Technical Co-operation.
By 2030, Syria wants to install 2,500 MW of wind power, 3,000 MW of mainly photovoltaic solar power, to install four million solar water heating systems and to increase the efficiency of various sectors of its economy to bring them into line with international standards.
This year, it plans to announce two additional wind energy projects with respective generating capacities of 30 MW and 100 MW, to install a 1 MW photovoltaic array and to launch a joint venture to produce photovoltaic panels.
The semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, which is chronically undersupplied with electricity, is also set on developing wind power.
The Kurdish regional government has ordered six wind turbines for a pilot project from the Dutch wind farm developer Main Wind. The turbines will be manufactured in South Korea.
Seeking diversity of renewable energy resources is among Syria’s priorities for the tenth five-year plan which expects an increase in electric power demand reaching 44,000 megawatt-hours in 2010 and 70,000 MWh in 2020. The plan aims at making use of renewable energy resources in power generation in order to decrease the demand for fuel and gas in generating electricity.
The study showed that wind energy is available in four Syrian areas: west and east of Homs, eastern versants of the coastal mountains, al-Sheikh Mountain, the marine region all over the Syria coast, the wind speed in these regions is included in the economic investment of wind farms using the energy of 2 MW wind turbines.
Regarding solar energy, the researching team measured sun luminosity in Syria and recorded readings that exceeded 7 kWh/ m2 in al-Dumir, Abu al-Shamat, Palmyra, al-Tanf, al-Bokamal and Bab al-Hawa regions.
The results indicated that the possible wind energy and solar power in Syria may reach 100,000 MW, i.e. 14-fold over the existed fossil energy stations’ total production which was enough for 100 years. Generating energy from home, petroleum, industrial and thermal wastes in Syria indicates production of more than 1000 MW, thus transferring waste from being environmental problem into energy producer. The available amounts of forest and animal residues in Syria are enough to produce 2000 MW of Biomass fuel needed in agrarian activities and electricity generation. Investment cost for the wat-hour is five times less expensive using renewable energy in comparison to fossil energy.
After inspecting the technique followed in electricity power stations using gas and fossil fuel and focusing on wasted energy, the team draw attention to the possibility of making use of these resources without any additional fuel and increasing the production of 1 m3 gas to 8 KWh through compensating the existed pressure decreasing system with hydrodynamic one using turbines which work on decreasing pressure and generate electricity at the same time.
Checking the specifications and the amount of gas used in generation and its low prices in the markets, the team proposed shifting to renewable energy resources to generate electricity and using the gas as car fuel or as industrial compound. The study indicated the possibility of generating electricity by dams with vertical turbines using small amounts of water flow.
The waste of electric power is mainly in the industrial and trade sectors and public institutions due to the low price of electricity and any Syrian industrial product uses 9 times more than what Europe and America use of electricity.
The study aims at encouraging industrialists to shift to solar and wind energy at the industrial facilities using what they need and pumping the overflow through the net and the same to be applied regarding public lighting system, advertising panel lighting, traffic light system, and traffic signs through using solar energy.
Concerning home consumption, the study focused on energy preserving systems via a thermal code added to the construction code and so to be adopted by public and private building companies to apply thermal insulations.
Managing Syria’s renewable energy resources requires clear decisions followed by executive legislations to manage energy file in Syria through investing the available renewable energy resources and providing supply in parallel with allowing private investments in this field which help develop the Syrian economy, said Mohammed Dieb, who led the group that conducted this study.
The study underlined the importance of integration between public and private sectors to achieve 10th five-year plan aims and the coming plans, stressing the necessity of providing support and economic legislations and tools to be implemented.
peegt.gov.sy/archive/downloads/rfg2009.pdf
www.peegt.gov.sy/index.php
