This week’s review is about a great piece of Ambient “World” music released at the magnificent Clinical Archives netlabel, a steady source of “eclectic and illogical music”. Its selft-proclaimed aim is to broaden the definition of music.

EugeneKha’s River Songs are not attempt in this direction, but they are a dozen well-crafted ambient songs with a distinct sound with various ethnic and cultural influences. In the following are 3 previews of my favourite songs as well as the obligatory download link.

[See post to listen to audio]

The River Song is the flagship song of this album. It starts big with a cinematic opening which could fit a broad range of films. Great first 30 seconds! Then the song slowly introduces other motives and instruments, until in 2:10 an oriental touch is added which moves the imaginary scenery.

[See post to listen to audio]

The Volga Bulgarians strolls through a vivid medina quarter, mixed with traditional western instruments. The comparably strong beat has a quick pace for such an “Ambient” music release.

[See post to listen to audio]

The Eternal River could be the River Song’s elder brother. A little less experimental, but well made and with a great primary motive (played in 1:55-2:25).

Tracks

Stats

In a previous post I wrote about MED-CSP, a study being part of the DESERTEC project which outlines a scenario for generating huge amounts of electricity by means of Concentrating Solar Power applied in the Mediterranean region. CSP stands for solar thermal power plants which do not operate with the photovoltaic effect used in solar cells, but for using the solar radiation to directly heat a medium—typically a fluid—which then is used to propel an ordinary steam turbine like used in fossil fuel or nuclear power plants.

While the last post focused on the MED-CSP study which explores the technical potential for generating electricity, this article deals with the transmission of a part of this energy to Middle and Northern Europe where it can substitute fossil fuels.

TRANS-CSP

The study begins with a chapter comparing three technologies that could be used to transfer solar Electricity from MENA to the Northern states. Those options are hydrogen, the conventional alternating current (AC) grid and a high voltage direct current (HVDC) infrastructure.

Hydrogen quickly drops out in such an application as two conversion steps, long transport and storage lead to an efficiency of the whole process below 30%. Also the conventional AC grid has not a sufficient efficiency. For 3000 km, only about 55% energy efficiency can be reached.

A HVDC line is significantly better with about 90% efficiency over 3000 km. That is why the study proposes to construct 20 transmission lines all over Europe until 2050, each with a transfer capacity of 5 GW. Such an infrastructure could then deliver 15 % of the projected electricity demand of Europe. Figure 1 summarises this scenario for 30 European countries from Scandinavia to South-Eastern Europe.

Image 1: TRANS-CSP scenario of gross electricity production and import for the analysed European countries until 2050. The import of other than solar electricity to the region is negligible. Diagram reproduced from the TRANS-CSP summary

The projected development includes three main trends:

1. Until 2020 the declining nuclear power plants and rising electricity demand are compensated mainly through natural gas and coal plants.
2. Starting in 2020, solar imports begin. Growing shares of wind energy and biomass usage begin to substitute coal and gas.
3. In 2050, natural gas usage has fallen back to a year 2000 level. Coal use for electricity production is less than half compared to the year 2000.

Concerning replacement of base load: the study projects that renewable energies will primarily reduce fuel consumption until 2020, but hardly substitute power capacities. Another interesting fact concerns the dependency from energy imports, an argument that is often brought against the DESERTEC project. Figure 2 outlines the amount of energy imported from foreign countries to the EU.

Image 2: Import dependency inclusive CSP import in the TRANS-CSP scenario compared to the current trend of import dependency in the EU. Diagram reproduced from the TRANS-CSP summary

By strengthening renewable energies within the European Union, import dependency can be dramatically reduced. The solar import of 15% of our electricity from MENA countries then are peanuts compared to the energy that today is imported in form of coal, oil, gas and uranium.

Technical difficulties

If the scenario becomes reality, Europe would have a share of 80% renewable energies for electricity production in 2050. This requires a efficient backup structure to compensate fluctuating feed-ins from renewable energies in form of natural gas peaking plants. The local electricity grid will have to be consolidated to redistribute electricity from the centres of production (offshore wind, rural biomass) to locations of demand (cities).

Subsidies and external costs

One argument against the further financial support of renewable energies with premium feed-in tariffs as realised in Germany is that this money could be spend wiser to improve the efficiency of traditional (i.e. fossil and nuclear) technologies. This arguments forgets that those technologies itself are heavily subsidised already. These subsidies are direct or indirect and include:

• Grants or low-interest loans to energy producers
• Quota, technical restrictions and trade embargoes
• Direct investment in energy infrastructure
• Public research and development
• Demand guarantees and mandated deployment rates
• Price controls and market-access restrictions

and last, but especially not least:

• Environmental external costs

External costs were and are a current research topic. In Europe, the ExternE project group investigates external costs caused from energy production. They have a short definition of external costs:

An external cost [...] arises when the social or economic activities of one group of persons have an impact on another group and when that impact is not fully accounted, or compensated for, by the first group. Thus, a power station that generates emissions of SO2, causing damage to building materials or human health, imposes an external cost.

When those costs are assessed, they can be re-internalised. Ways to do this are either taxes on technologies that cause the costs or by financially supporting alternative technologies which avoid those costs. External costs which have not yet been fully assessed are nuclear costs caused by nuclear waste disposal and transport. Other unquantified costs are political costs for wars on finite resources or military presence in general to secure access to them.

So support for renewable energies is not only fair but rather necessary to neutralise an otherwise unbalanced situation.

What’s next

In the next and final DESERTEC studies article I will cover AQUA-CSP, a study estimating the potential for providing water by desalination of sea water, powered by abundant energy from CSP plants in desert countries in Northern Africa.

Further reading

• TRANS-CSP at the German Aerospace Center. It features the full study report (190 pages), a shorter summary (18 pages) as well as an excel sheet with raw data of projected energy transfers, productions, …
• Homepage of the ExternE project, an effort to quantify external costs of energy production technologies.
• DESERTEC Foundation with up-to-date news on the realisation progress of the concept.

Relaxed vibe entering your ears! This ultra-cool release at Monotonik — which sadly is on hiatus at the moment — is really great background music with attitude. It features funky beats and chords, sometimes accompanied by fitting recordings of miscellaneous voices. As usual, I present 3 of my favourite tracks which are described in detail while you can listen to them.

[See post to listen to audio]

O Tema De Viagem Especial sounds like am samba or mambo tune cross-bred with relaxed dub music. It makes you want to move and just sip at a cooled drink while sitting in a comfy sofa.

[See post to listen to audio]

Princess Meoldiae, the last track, starts as a slow and melancholic song played by a harmonic. At 1:02 the beat sets in and pushes the song’s mood in a more active direction. Then the main flute theme is introduced which is such a catchy tune that I think I know it from somewhere in the classical music corner. Nothing noticeable happens from there on, but the track stays interesting by playing with the beats and flutes.

[See post to listen to audio]

Dragons is probably my favourite track of the album. A terrific brass theme together with a swirling SFX sample, probably taken from a video game, a jamming Hammond organ and some short voice samples result in a great, danceable easy-listening track.

Tracks

Stats

Apart from some stuffed animals in impressive sceneries the museum deals with the origin of the universe, the solar system and earth. Additionally it houses a fantastic interactive exhibition on both local and exotic animals and plants—not only—for children.

Third and finally it houses a fantastic collection of crystals and fossil stones, which I photographed, cropped and uploaded here. I hope you like them and leave a comment if they land on your desktop.

Stephane Garry is the man behind the name Pokett, having released this wonderful 4 track EP on the Sundays in Spring netlabel. It is all about dreamy folk music and ears full of emotional guitar chord carpets. Forget Jack Johnson or Conor Oberst, I like this album much better. It reminds me a bit of Newton Faulkner’s “Handbuilt by Robots”, however it lacks pop music genes. But listen yourself to my two favourite tracks (and download the whole release, of course)…

[See post to listen to audio]

Walls is a standard guitar-folk-with-drums-and-tired-singer’s-voice song, just with the small difference that the guitar folk part is exceptionally well done without sounding overdone.

[See post to listen to audio]

Yours is GREAT music. The guitar ostinato sounds like it must have been played already, but the melody consisting of 4 melancholic chords is simply ingenious. Slowly it builds up until the singer sets in and catches your mind that just was floating on the incredible flow of music. (And if you still don’t believe me that this song is great, just realise that listening to this song made me joyfully write such a prosaic song description.)

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The Comfort Stand netlabel is one of the strangest out there. It doesn’t focus on experimental sound in the sense of noise, bleep and clicking sounds, but in terms of a colourful mixture of artists, genres and styles. One song is a typical pop song, the next one would fit a ghost ride or seems to be written by someone on drugs. This release is a double album presenting the whole range of strangeness you can find in other releases by this label.

[See post to listen to audio]

Beautiful day by Beth Sorrentino is my personal gem of this release: she has a beautiful singing voice and is accompanied by piano.

[See post to listen to audio]

Polivox Box + Garage has the distinct Comfort Stand Records sound = 60’s influenced, disco and absolutely strange. The song would fit a film with both Adams family and Scooby Doo, facing each other in a discotheque led by Austin Powers.

[See post to listen to audio]

Hotcakes and sausage is finally a hilarious fun song which could be sung be the cookie monster from Sesame Street. Listen and laugh!

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This album is the 50th release of the netlabel 12rec. from Germany. It covers the range of the label which mainly publishes experimental guitar music with a touch of folk. 17 different tracks wait to be discovered. I present my three favourites in the following.

[See post to listen to audio]

You’ve Got To Be Strong by “The Sleeping Tree” could as well be by the band “Bright Eyes,” as far as the sound is concerned: An emotional folk song accompanied by guitar and sung by a distinct voice.

[See post to listen to audio]

Sleep At Sunrise by Crepusculum is a purely instrumental track. The first 2 minutes a lullaby-like tune is introduced. Then more instruments set in and the motive is reinterpreted with — I dare to say — more punch, as far as this is possible in a calm, percussion-less guitar song.

[See post to listen to audio]

Aus aktuellem Anlass is a special track: minimal electronic music with spoken lyrics which deal with the complex subject of war on/fear of terrorism and media.

Tracks

Stats

Last week I visited Austria’s capital city for the first time in my life. While the weather was not very pleasing — to say the least — Vienna itself kept its promise. It has a historic centre with many magnificent buildings like the “Burg” theatre, the opera. The town hall resembles a church with its many towers. Various churches and cathedrals wait to be visited, what I did with St. Stephan’s Cathedral, St. Charles’s Church. The culturally interested finds many museums and sights like Hunderwasser’s house. I visited also MUMOK, the museum for modern art. Its building resembles a monolithic black block from the outside.

This article originates from a presentation given by Hani El Nokraschy, one of the leading persons of the DESERTEC foundation. He presented the foundation’s vision towards a sustainable generation of electrical energy and drinking water around the Mediterranean Sea for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His presentation covered the three main studies called MED-CSP, TRANS-CSP and AQUA-CSP. CSP stands for Concentrating Solar Power and is the key technology for exploiting the huge potential of solar energy that shines on Africa’s deserts.

I split the presentation to three articles, each presenting one of the studies. So this article deals with the idea from which DESERTEC originated and the first study MED-CSP.

The idea

According to an interview with Jörn Aldag, one of DESERTEC’s founding fathers, the idea originate at the physician Gerhard Knies who worked at the research centre Desy in Hamburg. After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 he realised that nuclear energy could not be a solution to mankind’s energy problems. His second thought was the simple fact that world’s deserts together receive energy equivalent to the annual global energy consumption — in 6 hours.

So even when just the technically and ecologically exploitable potential is used, it should be easy to cover our energy demand without having to burn fossil fuels. To estimate this potential and to show a possible strategy for its exploitation until 2050 in the Mediterranean area was the task of the study MED-CSP.

MED-CSP

The study’s name is an abbreviation for Concentrating Solar Power for the Mediterranean Region. It investigated the potential for electricity supply from renewable sources in countries around and near the Mediterranean Sea. The region is described as EU-MENA which stands for Middle East and Northern Africa. This includes — amongst others — Spain, Italy in Europe; Algeria, Morocco and Egypt in Africa and Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia in Middle East. From this potential it then develops a scenario which demonstrates that it is possible not only to meet the energy demand of future growth in developing countries, but also export excess energy to central Europe for mutual benefit.

Before I get into the details, first some numbers from the EU for comparison: As of 2006, EU27 consumed about 3400 TWh of electric energy. About 55% of this energy is delivered by thermal power (mainly from coal, gas and oil), another 30% by nuclear power and 14% by renewable sources. The missing 1% comes from pumped storage power plants. (Source: Eurostat)

Now to the EU-MENA area: in 2002 the 25 countries had an energy production of 1400 TWh/a, almost completely provided by oil, gas and coal. This isn’t very surprising as states like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia have huge reserves of them.

The scenario

The following image shows the development of electrical energy production in the EU-MENA states for the years 2000, 2010, 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050.

Image 1: Scenario for electric energy production in EU-MENA countries from 2000 to 2050 in TWh per year, separated by energy source. Diagram reproduced from the original numerical data.

The two remarkable points are obvious: First, the reign of fossil fuels ends. The role of coal and gas rises its peak probably somewhere between 2020 and 2030 and then their importance begins to diminish. Second: At the same time concentrated solar power plants begin to rise in importance. Their enormous potential becomes obvious when realising that they might generate 2000 TWh/a in 2050. That is more than 50% of today’s electrical consumption of EU27. While a lot of the produced energy will be used to power their own economies, a huge share will also be left in order to be exported to the “colder” parts of Europe where it can help replacing fossil fuels burnt there.

Energy production by country

The following diagram gives an idea of the contributions to the proposed future energy production in the Mediterranean area.

Image 2: Projected energy production in 2050 divided by country. Data is from the same source as image 1. 100% are equal to 4020 TWh/a.

I have no striking interpretation for this image. Slice size largely depends on the population and expected state of development in 2050. It just gives an idea of the roles of single countries. Italy and Spain will have exploited nearly all their CSP potential while other countries would still have huge reserves left to grow their energy output.

What’s next

The next article on this topic will be about TRANS-CSP dealing with the infrastructure needed for energy transports from MENA to Europe. It will also focus on the economics (read: price) of production and transport of electricity. The third article will present the study AQUA-CSP which investigated the potential for production of drinking water based on desalination powered by renewable energies.