The world's largest solar power project in Sahara

With an investment of 400 billion euros, a German group plans to turn the Sahara desert in North Africa into a never-ending giant energy supply for Europe.

Their project, DESERTEC, will prove to the world that it is possible to produce electricity from solar energy with endless capacity and high economic efficiency.

'Super project'

Nam Duc newspaper has reported that about 20 large German companies plan to set up a group called DESERTEC to build a series of solar power plants in the desert of North Africa can satisfy 15% of demand. Power consumption of all Europe. Valued at 400 billion euros, including 350 billion euros to build power plants and 50 billion euros to install electricity transmission networks, this will be the largest private energy project ever and the project The world's largest producer of solar electricity.

Participating in this project must first mention the reinsurance company Munich Re with Siemens, Deutsche Bank and RWE - Germany's second largest power supply group. Executive DESERTEC is Munich Re.

On July 13, 2009, they will meet in Munich to set up DESERTEC and this is an open complex, always open to companies of other countries. Munich President Re, Mr. Jeworrek, believes this ambitious project will attract more European and North African partners.

He said some major Spanish and Italian businesses showed great interest in DESERTEC. From North African countries 'there are also many positive signals'. Only the French showed little interest in this 'green project' because they still rely heavily on nuclear energy.

It is expected that the DESERTEC founding meeting will be attended by ministries in Germany and representatives of the members of the Roma club (a research organization that proposes innovative ideas and ideas).

With DESERTEC's 'super project', within 10 years, a series of solar power plants will spring up in North Africa. The most important criterion for selecting North African countries as partners in this project: It must be 'politically stable'. Within 10-15 years after entering operation, DESERTEC's factories will 'make profits' with 'highly competitive' electricity prices.

The electricity price of DESERTEC will then be stabilized at 0.06 euros / kWh. The cheapest electricity price in Europe currently ranges from 0.025 to 0.05 euro / kWh, but according to experts, within 30 years, this price will increase much higher than today.

Technical feasibility, economic efficiency

The feasibility of DESERTEC project has been checked by authorities since 2005 with positive comments. The technology they produce from solar power has been successfully tested for years in Spain and in the Mojave Desert (California, USA).

These plants operate on the principle that giant parabolic mirrors will focus solar energy to heat a special oil and the oil heated at this high temperature turns water into steam running a generator turbine. This technology differs from solar cell technology, which directly converts solar energy into electricity.

With the construction of giant solar thermal plants in the North African deserts, one can produce an almost endless amount of electricity, with no CO2 emissions and stable prices. According to calculations, every year the sun "descends" the deserts in North Africa and the Middle East, equivalent to 630 billion MWh, while the annual electricity consumption in Europe is only 4 billion MWh.

DESERTEC not only addresses long-term energy production but also meets the most important global challenges in the coming decades. It is a lack of energy in prosperous areas, a shortage of fresh water, a lack of food and a phenomenon of massive emissions of CO2 causing a greenhouse effect. That is the answer to the problem of how 10 billion people exist on Earth by 2050, when the resources have been exploited by 6 billion people almost indiscriminately close to the current exhaustion. /.