2003-2009: How we got started

 

The core of the DESERTEC Concept is a very simple idea: Use the massive potential of solar in deserts to supply a significant fraction of the global energy consumption. 

The German Physicist Gerhard Knies calculated that less than 1% of the Sahara´s area would be sufficient to cover the electricity demand of the world. 

Why the Desertec Concept is so important

The Trans Mediterranean Energy Cooperation (TREC) was founded as the founders realised that North Africa and Europe would be ideal partners to advance each others energy transition: 

 

  • Renewables are less competitive in North Africa: Africa had (and sadly still has) very few factories building components for renewable energies, forcing it to import PV-modules, wind turbines etc. from Europe or Asia. The unfavourable currency exchange rates make renewable energy components more expensive, while fossil fuels are cheaper in most north african countries. The infrastructure for fossil fuels is established in north africa with most countries having massive reserves of oil and gas themselves, making fossil fuels much more economically attractive as they do not have to be transported and imported as done by most european countries. Additionally Europe had far bigger subsidy schemes for renewable energies. All these factors outweigh the geographical advantage of building solar in more sunny areas like deserts. This is the reason why no north african country was spearheading solar power. Renewable energy from deserts would be competitive to european fossil fuels far sooner than north african fossil fuels. If one wants to start as soon as possible to switch to renewable energies, there would be a massive potential source of income by exporting renewable energies from North Africa to Europe. 
  • Kickstarting renewable energy in North Africa would be expansive: While North Africa has a functioning electric grid (99 % of the population have access to electricity with black out times comparable to the European grid), the grid infrastructure is not yet ready for renewables. Building own factories to build components for solar parks and training the craftsmen, engineers and other experts would be very expensive in the beginning. Building the infrastructure, factories and know-how to export energy to Europe would generate income to co-finance the build up of these capacities, with these resources then also available to kickstart the energy transition in North Africa at the same time. 
  • Massive lack of programmable load in Europe: While Europe has some potential for solar roofs and windparks (especially in the north sea), there are little opportunities apart from geothermal energy in Iceland and hydropower in Scandinavia, that provide programmable energy (reliable energy on demand). Even if equipped with massive wind parks and most houses covered with solar panels, Europe would have to fire up coal and gas power plants to cover unfavourable weather conditions. Europe is in desperate need of big sources of reliable energy supply. North Africa offers an opportunity that is not present in europe: Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). More Information on the technologies can be found here: 

 

Organisations that helped founding DESERTEC 

With this compelling plan of accelerating both the energy transition in North Africa and Europe, the TREC-Network partnered with the Club of Rome, the Jordanian Energy Research Center (NERC) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to conduct studies on the DESERTEC Concept. 

First studies around DESERTEC 

The studies revealed the massive potential of deserts and the technical feasibility of a cross continental energy cooperation. The results of the study attracted lots of attention, making it necessary to build an institution that could communicate the results of the studies not just to other scientists, but also politicians and the general public. 

2009-2010: The DESERTEC Foundation is created 

What does DESERTEC do?

In 2009, the DESERTEC Foundation was created: It is a think take that pushes the implementation of the DESERTEC Foundation. 

Initially focussed to help communicate the results of the studies undertaken by TREC. The Foundation soon established two other operating fields: Lobbyism and support of Projects. 

The Foundation communicates both technical and political developments, especially since the concept involves Concentrated Solar Power, a rather unknown technology in Europe. As a think tank the Foundation develops concepts that take into account the special geographic and socio-economic conditions of those countries that have vast desert regions. Most concepts for an energy transition focus on the geographic and political landscape of Europe. Deserts offer the opportunity of Concentrated Solar Power, which are not economically viable in Europe while on the other hand many countries with large deserts often have less favourable economic circumstances for renewable energies. 

To advance these concepts, the Foundation lobbies for the implementation of the DESERTEC Concept. This involves allocation of funds for research, infrastructure development and off-take-guarantees, capacity market design and other policies. 

To avoid being a purely theoretical think tank, detached from realities on the ground, the Foundation always keeps a close contact with a network of concrete projects. 

One such network was the Desertec Industrial Initiative, founded in 2010. Founding members included banks, energy suppliers and engineering companies for energy equipment. 

The DESERTEC University Network was established in 2010 with support from the “Bundesstiftung Umwelt” (German Federal Foundation for Environment). 

The Foundation hosted events, gave speeches and interviews to communicate the benefits of the DESERTEC Concept and convince decision makers to advance the energy transition. 

 

2011-2014: Setting up Initiatives

In 2011 plans for solar parc initiatives got more attention with several Memorandums of Understanding being signed, among them with MASEN (Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy) and Sonelgaz (Algerian Grid Operator) and the EU. 

Prior to implementing any projects, the Foundation had to combat many myths about desert power and lobby for the political willingness of the EU to allow for a cable to Europe. Authorization of an electricity connection is a political decision, in which the country allowing a submarine cable in its territorial waters has to weigh the benefit of a faster, cheaper and less resource-intensive energy transition with the disadvantage of tilting the trade balance towards imports and allowing a cheap competition to local energy production. 

Especially power plant operators which use coal, gas or nuclear power are most affected by cheap competition from the deserts as they rely on making good profits in winter, when there is little competition from solar and wind due to poor weather conditions. While reducing fossil fuels and nuclear is exactly the intent of the energy transition, political resistance grew in Europe with fears of losing jobs in coal mining and operation of power plants. 

Another point of resistance to the implementation of the concept was the lack of short term benefits in 2011. At this point the technology of solar thermal plants was not nearly as advanced as many years later. The Foundation advocated for accelerating the energy transition in anticipation of falling prices for both photovoltaics and solar thermal plants. It would secure Europe’s edge with this technology, avoiding losing this industry to east asian manufacturers. 

Sadly this argument did not convince private investors. This delayed the implementation of the first projects. Many blamed the political circumstances for the delay of projects, but the fact that fossil gas is exported from North Africa to Europe makes it clear that the concept of trans-mediterranean energy trade is a proven and executable concept, as long as the technology used is profitable: Despite fears among the public, no terrorist organisation was ever successful in interrupting energy exports to Europe by attacking the energy infrastructure in North Africa, there was no embargo stopping gas exports to Europe, no piece of infrastructure belonging to a european entity was unlawfully nationalized. 

Political dependency on single countries would have been reduced. The European Union has increased its gas imports from Africa from 11% of its total gas consumption in 2005 to 15 % in 2024. Most of this gas comes from Algeria. The DESERTEC Concept can diversify these energy trades to many more countries, no longer being restricted to countries with large fossil fuel reserves. 

With fossil gas being more profitable than renewable energies around 2013-2014 most private investors left the Desertec Industrial Initiative, leading to the dissolution of this entity in that form. Many media outlets designated this as a failure of the project, despite public investors already taking over the pilot projects. 

Organizations independent from the Foundation popped up around the world, ready to implement renewable energies in deserts in similar plans to the DESERTEC Concept: 

  • The Gobitech-Initiative aims to use the Gobi-Desert to supply the densely populated east coast of China. 
  • The Dii Desert Energy GmbH aims to accelerate the energy transition on the Arabian Peninsula. 
  • The Australian-Asian-Power-Link aims to connect deserts in Australia with high demands in south-east Asia. 

 

 

2019-2023

With the first pilot projects proving the technical feasibility of large scale renewable energy production in deserts, the Foundation moved on to the next piece in the puzzle: Connecting the energy production to energy consumption. 

The Foundation finished a feasibility study about high voltage transmission cables in 2020 showcasing the advantages and hurdles to renewable energy infrastructure. 

Luckily other projects and initiatives around the world, started to have independent successes elsewhere, solidifying the premise of the first pilot projects, that large scale utilization of deserts for energy production is feasible. 

The aforementioned Gobitech-Initative transformed into the biggest renewable energy project in the world: A massive (12 GW) High Voltage Transmission line connects the Gobi Desert in western China to high demand areas in eastern China, covering a distance of over 3300 km. Several solar thermal plants, wind parks and photovoltaic parks have already finished construction with many more being planned. The end goal is a 450 GW network of solar and wind parks. 

Another very successful project is the Al Maktoum IV solar park in Dubai, which showcased that solar thermal power plants are not only technically feasible but also economically viable with a price of under 8 Cents/kWh. 

During the same time frame solar thermal plants in the United States showed that geographical hurdles are hard to overcome: Both the Ivanpah and Crescent Dune Solar Park pushed the technical limits to compensate for the weaker solar irradiation in North America compared to prime locations in North Africa and the Middle East. Both plants eventually faced technical issues. With a massive demand for night-time solar energy the Crescent Dune Project was revived, but the Ivanpah-Park continues to struggle. 

This motivated European decision makers to embrace cross-continental energy cooperation as many advocates of solar energy previously hoped for technological innovation to make solar thermal plants viable in southern Europe, where solar irradiation is on a similar level to the southern United States. 

In 2022 years of talks and negotiations culminated in the Energy Symposium of Rome, an event in the Italian Presidency of the Senate, where the DESERTEC Foundation connected politicians, companies and scientists, to finally approve long held plans for an electric connection between Tunisia and Sicily. The ELMED-Project got approved by the necessary authorities and is supported with European Funds. 

Desertec Kabel Analyse

 

 

2023-2025: Our current work

To further expand the DESERTEC Concept to chemical energy carriers, the Foundation began analysing different approaches. While electric transmission lines are by far the fastest, cheapest and most efficient way to transport energy over distances less than 4000 km, chemical energy carriers allow to diversify the energy hubs to more countries. With concerns about sustainability for E-Fuels and infrastructure issues with hydrogen, the Foundation focused on Combustible Iron Powder. Hydrogen and E-Fuels do have their special roles in climate neutral energy systems, but large scale energy transport seems much more feasible with Combustible Iron Powder. 

Equipped with a scalable concept for chemical energy carriers the Foundation started to organize delegation trips to countries with a large potential in renewable energies. Saudi Arabia, Columbia and the United Arab Emirates were very interested in trading hydrogen, combustible iron powder and E-Fuels on global markets as well as advancing their own energy transition.