For years, the idea of generating solar power for Europe in the Sahara was dismissed as pure fantasy. But then all of sudden it was happening, and Desertec was making headlines worldwide.
The Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII), a consortium of 12 large companies, plans to cover thousands of square kilometers of the Sahara Desert with solar thermal energy collectors. According to the plan, solar power from the desert will sate an energy-hungry world, a world in which oil reserves are dwindling and in which the climate is changing as a result of the use of oil, coal and gas reserves.
The amount of energy that the sun provides every day over the Sahara is so huge that solar plants covering 90,000 square kilometers of desert would be enough to provide the whole world with clean, emissions-free energy. Yet that whole area would be little more than just a glittering speck in the vast expanse of desert, which covers some 9 million square kilometers.
Until now, however, the whole thing has been little more than a mathematical exercise. A fossil fuel-based energy industry which has developed over decades is not going to switch to solar energy overnight. Which is why DII's current goals are relatively modest, namely to cover 15 percent of European electricity needs with energy from the desert by 2050.
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