NO MARMITE IN TUNISIA

The Desertec project has been on the drawing board for 30 years and now for the first time it has become technically feasible,�h said Wolfgang Dehen, chief executive of Siemens Energy.  This project, which some call "Energy Project of the Century", is to convert the Sahara desert sun into electricity. 

Munich Re, the German insurer Deutsche Bank, utilities RWE and Eon and industrial conglomerate Siemens are among the bluechip names that will form a company to explore the technical and geopolitical challenges of peppering the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East with solar mirrors.

The project consists of installing several thousand square metres of solar panels in the Sahara desert. This project involves several countries, including Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco. The technology used is based on thermal solar energy. The total transaction amounts to approximately 400 billion euros.

Because in six hours, the deserts of our planet receive more energy than humanity consumes in a year, the initiators of this project have come quickly to ask the following question: "How to transform economically this radiant energy into usable energy and transport it to consumers? "

The project relies on a network of solar power concentration. The principle is known and already implemented in California in particular. 

Concentrating solar power plants use the sun�fs heat to generate electricity. Hundreds of mirrors focus the sun�fs rays on to a receiver containing a heat transfer fluid, such as oil. This heat energy is used to produce steam which drives a turbine, much like in a traditional power station.  Unlike photovoltaic solar cells, CSP plants are able to generate electricity at night or on cloudy days, by storing the heat they produce.

Another key component of the system: distribution. The project promoters intend to build a network of transmission lines of high voltage direct current that can carry current with losses of less than 3% per 1000 km distance. These links may be aerial, buried or laid on the bottom of the Mediterranean.

Solar thermal power plants in desert areas should be within 40 years, meeting more than half the energy needed in the form of electricity in the region EUMENA: Europe, Middle East, North Africa.

If this project is considered realistic, many questions still remain.  Will producing countries actually benefit from this project economically and socially?  Although feted in the German media, Desertec is not without its detractors, who see it is an expensive flight of fancy, first cooked up by ardent professors and political idealists, and now embraced by corporate spin.  However, many embrace the idea that it could considerably help cut greenhouse gases.