Red Sea Geothermal Provinces

"Today, over two billion people in developing countries live without any electricity. They lead lives of misery, walking miles every day for water and firewood, just to survive. What if there was an existing, viable technology, that when developed to its highest potential could increase everyone's standard of living, cut fossil fuel demand and the resultant pollution" said Peter Meisen, President, Global Energy Network Institute in 1997. Even though energy is available, technology was not matured enough to tap this energy in the nineties. Now, with the advancement of drilling technology, extracting heat from hot rocks has become a reality. Very soon when CO2 replaces the circulation fluid to extract heat from granites then both fossil fuel based and renewable energy sources will coexists balancing the CO2 emissions and providing energy, food and water security to the rich and the poor countries.

Red Sea rift represents the youngest spreading ridges in the world with a vast amount of heat energy stored on either side. The Red Sea is surrounded by countries with a weak economy. Developing a geothermal energy based economy in countries like Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia will provide food and water security to these countries while for other countries, geothermal energy will help in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Although geothermal energy sources are available in all the countries since the opening of the Red Sea, millions of years ago, this was not brought to the light. Oil importing countries became highly dependent on the oil rich countries to sustain their economy and growth and thus remained poor.

This book unfolds the huge energy source, hydrothermal and EGS, for the benefit of the poor countries to reduce poverty and lift the socio economic status of these countries. The book deals with i) future energy demand, ii) CO2 emissions associated with fossil fuel based power plants, iii) black carbon emissions associated biomass energy source and iv) strategies to reduce CO2 emissions by using geothermal energy as energy source mix in all the countries--oil exporting and oil importing countries-- around the Red Sea. The amount of energy available from hot granites in all the countries is well documented. EGS being the future energy source for mankind, this book will form the basis for future research by young scientists and academicians.

Availability of fresh water is a matter of concern for all countries. The only way to satisfy the thirst of a growing population, to meet drinking water demand and food security, is to depend on seawater. A large volume of CO2 is being emitted from desalination plants supported by fossil fuel based energy sources. This book describes the advantages of using geothermal energy sources for the desalination process to meet the growing water and food demand of the countries around the Red Sea. Oil rich countries, using its geothermal resources, can now reduce food imports and become self sufficient in food production.

This book gives hope for millions of children living in the underdeveloped countries around the Red Sea to satisfy their hunger and live a decent life with a continuous source of electricity, water and food available. This book ends with a note on the economic benefits of geothermal energy vs other renewables. With the signing of the GGA (Global Geothermal Alliance) by several countries during the December 2015 CoP 21 summit in Paris, policy makers and administrators will work together in implementing the necessary infrastructure and support to develop this clean energy source.

Dornadula Chandrasekharam (Chandra: b1948, India), Chair Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) obtained his MSc in Applied Geology (1972) and PhD (1980) from IITB. He has been working in the fields of geothermal energy resources, volcanology, and groundwater pollution for the past 35 years. Before joining IITB, he worked as a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, and Centre for Earth Science Studies, Kerala, India for 7 years. He held several important positions during his academic and research career. He was a Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS, Trieste, Italy); Visiting Professor to Sanaa University, Yemen Republic between 1996-2001; Senior Associate of Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy from 2002-2007; Adjunct Professor, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan from 2011-2012. Recently he has been appointed as a visiting Professor to King Saud University of Saudi Arabia. He received the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP, Trieste, Italy) Fellowship to conduct research at the Italian National Science Academy (CNR) in 1997. Prof. Chandra extensively conducted research in low-enthalpy geothermal resources in India and is currently the Chairman of M/s GeoSyndicate Power Private Ltd., the only geothermal company in India. He is an elected board member of the International Geothermal Association, and has widely represented the country in several international geothermal conferences. He conducted short courses on low-enthalpy geothermal resources in Argentina, Costa Rica, Poland and China. He has supervised 18 PhD students and published 160 papers in peer reviewed journals of international repute and published 7 books in the field of groundwater pollution and geothermal energy resources. His three books on geothermal energy resources 1) ''Geothermal Energy Resources for Developing Countries'' Balkema Pub.(2002), 2) Low Enthalpy Geothermal Resources for Power Generation Taylor and Francis, (2008) and 3) Geothermal Systems and Energy Resources Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Region Taylor and Francis, (2014) are widely read. Prof Chandra served on the Board of Director of 1) Oil and Natural Gas Corporation 2) Western Coal Fields Ltd., 3) India Rare Earths Ltd. and 4) Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals. He has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Geothermal Energy Resources and Management committee constituted by the Department of Sciences and Technology, Government of India.

Aref Lashin, Currently working as an Associate Professor in the department of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, obtained his Ph.D from the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology. His permanent affiliation is with the department of geology and geophysics, Faculty of Science, Benha University, Egypt. He was a graduate student at the United Nations University, Geothermal Programme, Iceland in 2005. Dr Lashin's expertise is in the field of geothermal energy and hydrocarbon exploration and is currently executing several geothermal projects supported by NSTIP strategic technologies programs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He published a large number of scientific papers in ISI and peer-reviewed journals and supervised several many master and Ph.D students.

Nassir S. Al-Arifi, Ph. D. from the University of Manchester, UK, is currently the director of visiting professor program, vice rectorate for scientific research at King Saud University and a full professor specialized in earthquake seismology at the department of geology and geophysics, college of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh. Professor Al Arifi published more than 45 articles in peer-reviewed journals and supervised more than 17 M.Sc. theses. His current research interest is in the field of geothermal exploration using multi method applied geophysics and has published more than 15 articles in this field. He translated two books in the field of hydrogeology and geophysics.

Abdulaziz M Al-Bassam is a Professor of hydrogeology and hydrochemistry, Department of geology, College of Sciences, King Saud University. He obtained his M.Sc. degree from Ohio University, USA and Ph.D. from Birmingham University, UK. Earlier he was the Chair of the Geology Department, and Vice Dean for the college sciences, King Saud University. He held several important position in the Kingdom: Secretary of Saudi Society for Earth Science; Supervisor of Saudi Geological Survey Research Chair (SGSRC) for Natural Hazards; Member of Advisory committee for Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water; Member of Executive committee for Dams Operation and Maintenance Program. His research interests are hydrogeology, hydrochemistry, geothermal and environmental aspects. He published more than 50 papers, authored two books and translated a book.