Jun 18 2009

Sahara Solar

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

The world's biggest renewable energy project--at least on paper--may launch next month with an investment of half a trillion dollars, according to the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Promoted by the Desertec Foundation, the project would erect 100 gigawatts of concentrating solar thermal power generation in North Africa, enough to supply about 15 percent of Europe's electricity needs. That's about 80 times the size of PG&E's record solar deal with BrightSource Energy.

As NEXT100 reported last fall, European leaders including Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy have endorsed the concept of transmitting vast amounts of Saharan solar power to Europe over efficient, high-voltage DC lines. Visionary inventors have gone further and proposed desalination plants and coastal agricultural projects to accompany solar stations along Africa's Mediterranean shore.

The Desertec project brings together 20 major German companies, including Siemens, Deutsche Bank, RWE, E.on, and the insurance giant Munich Re. Munich Re has been vocal about the looming financial impact on the insurance industry (among others) of natural disasters aggravated by global warming. Companies from other countries may join as well.

According to some estimates, harnessing a mere 0.3 percent of the light falling on the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East could supply all of Europe's energy needs.

Desertec has won applause even from the harshest critics of big corporations. Said Andree Bohling of Greenpeace, "Businesses have finally recognised that renewable energies belong to the future, and in times of economic crisis this also sends out an important signal for economic growth."

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