Sahara Solar Power Could Become Reality for Europe

It now seems that the German led Desertec Industrial Initiative says that it could deliver power to Europe as early as 2015. Recently a $400 billion plan to provide Europe with solar power from the Sahara moved a step closer to reality. This reality came a step closer with the formation of a consortium of 12 companies to carry out the work.

The Desertec Industrial Imitative, also known as DII, aims at providing about 15 percent of Europe’s electricity needs by 2050 or earlier via power lines that stretch across the desert and the Mediterranean sea. This consortium was brought together by Munich Re, and consists of some of the world’s biggest engineering and power companies. This does include such companies as E.ON, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, and ABB.

Professor Peter Hoppe, which is Munich Re’s head of climate change, said that they have now passed a milestone. He went on to say that they are viewing this as a big step towards solving the two main problems that are facing the world in the coming years. These two problems are energy security and climate change.

The solar technology that will be involved is known as concentrated solar power, or CSP. This is not new technology by any means. Pretty much it is the use of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays on a fluid container. Then the super heated liquid in the containers will drive turbines to generate electricity. The advantage of this kind of power of solar power, is the fact that the hot fluids heated by the sun can be stored in containers, meaning that the generators can be powered all night long.