POTENTIAL AND EXPLOITATION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES IN LIBYA

The specialized studies referred to two types of renewable energy sources with height potential in Libya, that they are; solar energy and wind energy. The average solar radiation incident on a horizontal surface reaches 5.5 kWh/m2.day in the coast Northern regions and about 7.0 kWh/m2.day in the Southern part of the country, with total sunny duration around 3550 hours yearly. While the average wind speed is 6 m/s in some coastal places. We have not recorded any interests about other types of renewable energy sources, such as, biomass,geothermal and tidal energies.This study shows the potential and the size of exploitation of renewable energies in Libya. The available is very height but the exploitation is still little. despite the early starts of electrical application of solar energy using PV systems, the development march is not regular and has no clear strategic, and the production and consumption sectors still hesitated to introduce the renewable energies utilization in their programs.Beside all of this, we registered some applications especially in the field of electrical production, hot water supply in some rare areas, and some pilot plants in water desalination, furthermore, some PV and wind mile systems in research centers and universities for research purposes. However, the exploitation not excesses than 0.1% of total power generated in Libya. The interests were restricted only on the scientific activities, which adopted by the research centers and universities. Sebha University interests with the renewable energy sources and it appears especially in the conferences which organized and cooperated by the University