DESERTEC – Facts, History and Future

The DESERTEC Concept
The DESERTEC Concept was developed since 2003 by the German Club of Rome and a network of experts around the Mediterranean called TREC (Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation). Between 2004 and 2007, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), confirmed the feasibility of DESERTEC in three studies.

Birth of the DESERTEC Foundation
In 2008 the DESERTEC Foundation was formed to coordinate the activities of the DESERTEC networks and to create alliances to realize the DESERTEC concept worldwide. The DESERTEC Foundation was founded by forward thinking persons (incl. members of TREC and His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal from Jordan), who have invested their personal time and money to realize a key plank in a global solution for energy, water and climate security.

The DESERTEC Foundation is working closely with the German Association Club of Rome. A great deal has already been achieved:

Inspiring the Mediterranean Solar Plan
In January 2008 the production of our WhiteBook “The DESERTEC Concept – Clean Power from Deserts” provided the inspiration and trigger for the creation of the Mediterranean Solar Plan, a project of the Union for the Mediterranean.

Launching of an industrial initiative (Dii GmbH)
On October 1st 2008 founders of the DESERTEC Foundation convinced MunichRe to initiate jointly the Dii to realize DESERTEC in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EU-MENA). On the 30th of October 2009 the articles of association for the "Dii GmbH" were signed in Munich, where the headquarters of the Dii are based.

The Dii founding-members are the DESERTEC Foundation and 12 companies. Shareholders of the Dii GmbH are ABB, ABENGOA Solar, Cevital, DESERTEC Foundation, Deutsche Bank, E.ON, HSH Nordbank, MAN Solar Millennium, Munich Re, M+W Zander, RWE, SCHOTT Solar and SIEMENS. Now, several further companies, from several different countries, have joined the Dii.

Paul van Son is the CEO of the Dii. He has been active for about 30 years in various management positions in the European energy industry, including being Managing Director of Econcern (Netherlands) and Deutsche Essent (Germany). Those two companies have built a good reputation as developers of renewable energy and energy efficiency programs. Mr. van Son is also Chairman of the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) and Chairman of the Energy4All Foundation which is active in Africa.

The industrial initiative appointed Prof. Klaus Töpfer as its “Ambassador”. He will advise the DESERTEC industrial initiative on strategic issues. His activities will focus on political and social questions, with a view to realizing the DESERTEC vision for the benefit of all participants in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EU-MENA).

The DESERTEC Foundation and the Dii working together
The DESERTEC Foundation supports the Dii with its networks, know-how and standards represented by its "DESERTEC" trademark. The DESERTEC Foundation is a link between industrial partners in the Dii and other NGOs such as the Club of Rome and Greenpeace.

With His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal from Jordan as one of its founding members, the DESERTEC Foundation is receiving high-level support from one of the most respected persons in the Arab world and beyond.

Plans for the future
In the period up to 2012, the Dii will concentrate on the speedy implementation of the DESERTEC Concept in EUMENA, by creating a favorable regulatory and legislative environment, analysis of concrete reference projects, developing a roll-out plan for such projects, and additional or more detailed studies, as and when required.

The DESERTEC Foundation plans to start further initiatives in other regions (e.g. in the USA, India, China and Australia) to achieve its mission of realizing the DESERTEC Concept “Clean Power from Deserts for a world with 10 billion people”. In cooperation with universities, scientific institutes and other partners, the DESERTEC Foundation will work on studies of how the DESERTEC Concept may be applied in several different regions around the world.

The DESERTEC Foundation aims to serve as a hub or focus for the realisation of the DESERTEC Concept. This not-for-profit organization will act as an “awareness raiser”, “catalyst” and “barrier remover” to smooth the way for DESERTEC developments. In the relative short period since its founding in 2008, this strategy has already had an impact: Egypt and Israel want to cooperate in the development of solar energy, Morocco and Tunisia are planning billion-dollar solar plans and DESERTEC is being called a model for solar projects in China, India and Australia.


You can be part of the solution!
To continue this success story, we welcome partners who would like to support our work financially or by collaboration or both those things. If you would like to help, please contact our foundation at partner(at)desertec.org