2025/01/20 by Upeksha Caldera, Andreas Mühlbauer, Mai ElSayed +2 · 1 voice
Energy · Environmental Science · Engineering · #Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems #Energy and Environment Impacts #Integrated Energy Systems Optimization
paper · doi:10.1016/j.segy.2025.100174
About 95% of Egypt is desert and 5% of the land is inhabited by more than 95% of the population. Aim of this research is to show how Egypt can make use of its plentiful renewable resources, available land area, and access to the sea, to establish cost-effective afforestation irrigated with renewable energy-based seawater desalination for land degradation mitigation. This carbon dioxide removal opportunity offers to sequester up to 0.37 GtCO 2 annually at an average CO 2 sequestration cost of 155 €/tCO 2 by mid-century. By 2100, a total of 34 GtCO 2 is estimated to be sequestered in an area of 132,500 km 2 . The CO 2 sequestration costs decrease from 420 €/tCO 2 in 2030, at the start of the project, to about 80 €/tCO 2 by 2100. Regions with cooler climate and closer to the coastline, such as the North Western region of Egypt, offer the least cost CO 2 sequestration with values as low as 40–50 €/tCO 2 by 2070. The low cost of renewable electricity, especially solar photovoltaics, and the increasing sequestration rate of trees as they mature drive down costs. This research highlights how Egypt can use afforestation with renewable energy-based desalination to sequester CO 2 while combatting land degradation and yielding economic benefits. • Egypt faces severe land degradation and water scarcity, projected to worsen. • Afforestation with desalinated water offers a cost-effective CDR solution. • Egypt can export CDR services to nations with limited land or energy resources. • CO 2 sequestration costs drop from 421 €/tCO 2 in 2030 to 82 €/tCO 2 in 2100. • Egypt's sequestration potential reaches 34 GtCO 2 , with 0.68 GtCO 2 /yr by 2100.