erts in just six hours could power all of cilitator, encouraging governments and humankind for one year. Knies started the funders to take on solar and wind power Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy projects. One of its ¿ rst reference proj- Corporation (TREC), which developed ects will be a 500-MW solar power plant the Desertec concept with scientists from developed in cooperation with the Mo- the German Aerospace Center. TREC be- roccan Agency for Solar Energy (MA- came the Desertec Foundation in 2009, SEN). The plant will use a combination and now Knies serves as chair of the su- of technologies: 400 MW of concentrated pervisory board. solar power (CSP) and 100 MW of pho- Desertec proponents see the initiative tovoltaics (PV). Eighty percent of the as a “win-win” scenario, with both prac- electricity generated will be exported to tical and idealistic bene¿ ts. European Europe, carried by the transmission line countries would get additional sources of now used to ferry electricity in the other Initiative Regional power to ful¿ l their goals for transition- direction from Spain. • Desert ing from fossil fuels to renewable elec- Dii is also working with the utility tricity. The MENA countries would gain company STEG Energie Renouvelable visions sources of sustainable power to support to examine the feasibility of building the needs of their growing populations, large-scale solar and wind projects and Corinna Wu as well as a valuable product for export. transmission lines in Tunisia. Egypt The economic stimulus would create jobs and Algeria are also talking with Dii to on both sides of the Mediterranean, and ¿ nd avenues of cooperation, according ater may be scarce in the Sa- the sharing of electricity across the grid to van Son. Whara Desert, but it has plentiful would foster positive relationships be- A variety of power generation technol- amounts of another natural resource: tween nations, they said. ogies are being considered for Desertec, sunshine. Now, as part of an ambitious “The concept isn’t purely about solar including CSP, PV, and wind. CSP plants initiative called Desertec, countries power in the desert,” said Gerry Wolff, use focused sunlight to heat a material in the Middle East and North Africa coordinator of Desertec-UK, a volunteer such as molten salt or sand. That stored (MENA) are moving toward turning this group working to promote the concept in heat can then be tapped to produce steam Energy Quarterly solar abundance into a valuable source the United Kingdom. “It is about inte- to power a turbine. When the Desertec of clean electricity. grating solar and wind power in deserts concept was being developed a few years The vision behind Desertec is to build with the whole range of renewables,” ago, CSP was the main focus, Wolff said. a network of solar and wind power plants even geothermal power in Iceland, for But recently, PV prices have dropped across deserts in the MENA and to dis- example. Developing an interconnected enough to make that technology practi- tribute that electricity throughout the electric transmission grid across Europe cal. In some areas of the MENA, espe- region and to Europe. Desertec’s goal is and the MENA will be key. A French in- cially in the Western Sahara, wind might “to satisfy a substantial part of the en- dustrial consortium called Medgrid is fo- make the most sense. ergy needs of the MENA countries and to cusing on transmission issues and shares “The market conditions of these tech- meet up to 15 percent of Europe’s elec- some of Desertec’s industrial partners. nologies are very different,” van Son tricity demand by 2050.” Its ¿ rst pilot Dii was established in 2009 and in- said. “Wind is almost at market, and PV project will be built in Morocco in 2013, cludes companies such as Siemens, ABB, is rightly on its way to being integrated, taking advantage of an existing undersea Deutsche Bank, and Munich Re, as well whereas CSP still needs strong support. transmission line that connects Morocco as non-commercial ones such as the Max- We believe that these technologies will, to Spain. Planck Society and the Fraunhofer So- after a certain phase of incentives, be able “Energy from the deserts is the larg- ciety. By 2012, the Dii expects to draft to compete in the markets without ¿ nan- est energy source on Earth,” said Paul a “long-term, holistic ‘roll-out’ plan” to cial support.” van Son, CEO of the Desertec Industrial guide governments and investors inter- The electrical grid in the MENA and in Initiative (Dii), a consortium of private ested in developing a market for renew- Europe will need a host of new transmis- organizations working to bring the De- able energy in the MENA deserts, said sion lines to carry the electricity gener- sertec concept to fruition. “Our aim is to van Son. “That will include regulatory, ated by these new plants. Dii is work- make the best use of it for the bene¿ t of social, economic, ¿ nancial, generation, ing with RWTH Aachen University in millions of people.” and transmission grid conditions, ensur- Germany and the Technical University Desertec began in 2003 as the brain- ing the feasibility of desert energy.” The Munich to ¿ nd solutions for these lines child of Gerhard Knies, a retired high- plan will run through 2050. to serve the new interconnected markets, energy physicist who calculated that the Dii itself does not invest in or build said van Son. High-voltage direct current amount of sun that hits the world’s des- power plants but rather acts as a fa- (HVDC) cables, which allow for long- MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 36 • SEPTEMBER 2011 • www.mrs.org/bulletin • Energy Quarterly 683 distance transmission without power are ahead of the curve, said Wolff, while which includes the investments for solar losses, will have to be installed under the others are lagging. Germany’s Renew- thermal power plants and HVDC trans- Mediterranean and technology deployed able Energy Act of 2000 established feed- mission lines that would satisfy 17 per- to convert dc electricity to ac. in tariffs that encouraged people to make cent of European power demands over The desert environment also presents long-term investments in technologies the next four decades. A 2010 study by potential problems for solar, such as sand- such as solar. As a result, Germany now the E.ON Energy Research Center at storms and the lack of water for cleaning gets about 17 percent of its electricity RWTH Aachen University investigated and cooling. But other CSP projects in from renewable sources. the economics of Desertec by looking desert locales have shown that those tech- Part of Dii’s task is to talk to organiza- at the costs, risks, and uncertainties of a nical challenges are surmountable, Wolff tions such as the European Commission, pilot project comprising a 2 GW HVDC said. CSP plants in the Mojave Desert Wolff said, and convince them to provide cable and 10 power plants with 200 MW have shown that they can be air-cooled, a subsidy for the electricity produced by of capacity each. Based on this scenario, Regional Initiative Regional and new technology allows the solar col- Desertec. The industry partners give Dii “unless marked cost reductions for CSP • power plants can be achieved in the com- ing years, we conclude that the estimated budget of €395 billion for the realiza- tion of the entire Desertec project will likely be overrun,” the authors stated. This year, the widespread political tur- moil in Egypt, Tunisia, and other MENA nations raised questions about whether the “Arab Spring” would derail progress on renewable energy projects in the re- gion. Katrin-Susanne Richter, director of the Desertec Foundation, issued a statement that they did not expect the solar plans of the affected countries to Energy Quarterly change. What’s more, the wave of civil uprisings reinforces the importance of improving the economic prospects of the MENA countries’ fast-growing popula- The parabolic, trough-shaped mirrors in a concentrated solar power plant focus sunlight onto a tube containing oil or similar fl uid. The heated fl uid then can be used to make tions, she said. steam and generate electricity. Courtesy of Desertec-UK. “The Desertec concept . supports the socio-economic development in the countries where the projects will be car- lection mirrors to be cleaned with very a strong voice, he said. “Because they ried out, through a transfer of knowledge, little water, he said. The mirrors can also have these large, heavy duty companies investments, and the creation of jobs in be rotated to protect them against damage involved, they have the political clout to a new, sustainable industrial sector,” ac- during sandstorms. make it happen.” cording to Richter. “Also, for reasons of Research to develop these enabling Those policies will affect the econom- security policy, it is useful for Europe, technologies will be conducted by mem- ics of the Desertec initiative, since the particularly at the present time, to sup- bers of the Desertec University Network, high initial costs of renewable energy port an energy cooperation such as the which consists of 18 institutions in projects will require government support Desertec concept.” the MENA and two in Europe. The uni- to get off the ground. “It will take some When people express concern about re- versities will also be crucial in provid- years until the cost level of solar energy, lying on “unstable” countries for power, ing scienti¿ c training and expertise for for example, will reach market level,” Wolff said that they forget that Europe al- Desertec projects. said van Son. “Initially, industries would ready depends on those countries for oil.