Enormous amounts of energy is being delivered every day by the sun to the deserts. Deserts receive in six hours as much energy from the sun as humankind consumes in one year. In addition, some deserts have very good wind sites. The deserts would enable a secure, sufficient and affordable energy delivery for a world of 10 billion people from clean and inexhaustible sources.The Desertec project, which aims to power Europe with solar energy from the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, is to go truly international next month as five new companies from Spain, Italy, France, Morocco and Tunisia join the scheme.The Desertec concept was developed by the Club of Rome's Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC) network to bring solar power to Europe from North Africa.
The idea has become increasingly attractive since the EU's new Renewable Energies Directive set a binding goal to reach a 20% share of renewable energies in the EU's energy mix by 2020, detailing individual targets for each country (EurActiv 09/12/08).
Credits
Windmills in the desert photograph by ABrinsky.
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