An ambitious and encouraging solar project

On November 28, 2007, his Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, former president of The Club of Rome, presented a White Book about the DESERTEC Concept to the European Parliament. This is part of what he said: “More than 40 years ago the Apollo Space Program was launched to fulfill the old dream of taking man into outer space. Today, we have a bigger dream, to restore balance between man and his home planet, Earth. With the political will, EUMENA countries could now launch an Apollo-like “EUMENA-DESERTEC” Program, to bring humankind back into balance with its environment, by putting deserts and technology into service for energy, water and climate security. This would be an important step towards creating a truly sustainable civilization.”
Now, less than a year later the project vision continues. With this planned Desertec project Europe plans to build a giant solar power plant to convert the sun in the Sahara Desert into CO2-free electricity. An idea that if it moves forward will mean a gigantic solar thermal plant stretching across the deserts of North Africa and sending enormous quantities of energy across the Mediterranean to Europe without emitting CO2. It is an idea which has been in the works for years and that were it to become reality it could provide power to North African countries and cover up to 15% of Europe’s energy needs.
The way it will work is by installing massive collectors that would concentrate sunlight to heat water with the resulting steam then driving energy-producing generators. The idea is not totally new as a similar power plant has been in operation in California since the 80’s and more recently three have been built in Spain. Desertec just by its size will be the most ambitious of them . This past Tuesday, a a group of 20 companies, and governments announced they would meet in mid-July to discuss the way forward.