In Kuraymat, roughly 100 kilometers south of Cairo, a major solar-thermal power plant is going into operation for the first time in Egypt. The solar field consists of parabolic trough collectors with an overall surface area of 130,000 m² and is part of a hybrid power plant that will use both Concentrating Solar Power and natural gas to generate electricity.

Read article on: www.evwind.es

The loan guarantee originally was announced by President Barack Obama in June 2010. Solana will cost a total of about $2 billion and will generate about 250 megawatts of electricity, Abengoa said. The project will create between 1,600 and 1,700 construction jobs and more than 85 permanent jobs, the company said. About 98 percent of the jobs will be in the United States, primarily Arizona and neighboring states. About 75 percent of the equipment and supplies for the power plant will be made in America, the company said.

Read article on: www.bizjournals.com

After years of discussions, Spain and France reached a breakthrough for the European power supply: They build a strong power-link through the Pyrenees. The technology applied will be High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission, which minimizes transmission losses and plays a central role in the DESERTEC Concept. "This transmission line is a jigsaw piece for DESERTEC" states Udo Niehage, director of the power transmission branch of Siemens, "but it is still by far not sufficient."

Read (German) article on: www.ftd.de

California speeds up the conversion of it's energy sector to renewable energies and relies also on CSP to do so. Since August solar thermal power plants with a capacity of 4142.5 MW have been licensed.

Read article on: www.evwind.es

The German development bank KfW finances the largest wind-park in Egypt. The project amounts to a capacity of 200 MW and like Dr. Norbert Kloppenburg, member of the board of directors of the KfW, states: "[...]an important step is taken to realize the vision of DESERTEC: the generation of clean energy from deserts."

Read (German) article on: www.fondsdiscount.de

At a press conference on the occasion of a meeting with the Algerian President, Angela Merkel highlights DESERTEC as an important project for cooperation between Europe and Africa.

Watch video on: www.dw-world.de

The Algerian press comments on the support for DESERTEC, which has been announced by the Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika after a longer period of distance to the project. (Comment: The presented calculation, that costs of 400 billion € over 40 years would lead to costs of 100 billion € is of course wrong, yearly costs would amount to 10 billion €)

Read (French) article on: www.elwatan.com

Medgrid, formerly known as Transgreen, has been inaugurated by 20 industrial enterprises on thursday with the aim to connect Northern Africa with Europe by high-capacity power transmission lines - thus Medgrid is a valueable complement to DESERTEC. This becomes clear also by the participation of, among others, Siemens and Red Electrica Spain, which are also shareholders of the Dii GmbH.

Read article on: www.renewableenergymagazine.com

"I have assured, that we have high interest in the realization of DESERTEC" said german chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) after a meeting with the President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika yesterday in Berlin. He also confirms, that Algeria has a high interest in promoting DESERTEC. "We want a close cooperation at DESERTEC" To achieve this, a shared economic commission has been created, which shall support the project.

Read article on: www.monstersandcritics.com

This week a university network for the support of the DESERTEC-concept has been launched - the network consists initially out of 18 leading universities and scientific institutions located in ten countries of the MENA region from Morocco to Jordan. Aim of the initiative is to educate future employees for the solar industry as well as foster international cooperation and technology transfer. The DESERTEC University Network is a major milestone on the way to the realization of DESERTEC.

Read (German) article on: www.sueddeutsche.de

Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger plans to harmonize the european support of renewable energies and hereby increase its efficiency. A europwide support would make it possible to generate renewable energies where they are most abundant in Europe: e.g. wind energy in the north and solar energy in the sunny south. Such a harmonization would also be a first step to enable the feed-in of electricity from the desert countries of Northern Africa.

Read article on: www.polijam.com

Research Ministers of the EU, together with the European Commission, announced on 29.11.2010 three new infrastructural buildings for energy research. Among others, the plan for an institute for Concentrating Solar Power in Spain, with total building costs of 80 million € until 2015, has been presented. The buildings are part of the roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure (ESFRI).

Read German article on: www.isria.com

Following Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, the European Union (EU) as a whole needs consistent laws, which regulate the feed-in of electricity from renewable sources into the grid and establish feed-in tariffs like the german Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG). This would also help promoting DESERTEC. The majority of the member states uses rules for the subsidies, which only apply to renewable energy generated on their own territory. In order to keep the national laws working, the member states have to be able to control the effect and cost of these rules taking into consideration their respective potential. This guideline aims on facilitating the cross-frontier promotion of energy from renewable sources, without interfering with national laws.

Read German article on: www.euractiv.de

The Environment Ministers of the 16 federal states of Germany agreed on a more pronounced support for the DESERTEC project. A resolution according to this was issued on the latest conference of the Environment Ministers in Dresden. In this resolution, the 16 Environment Ministers and Senators ask for a stronger support for DESERTEC by the German Government also on a European level.

Read German article on: www.energie-experten.org

The PV and solar thermal market have experienced tremendous increases in profits throughout the last two years. The CSP industry has an ambitious cost-reduction path and can provide solar thermal power customers with a higher "power quality" as it has storage capacities, controllability’s and possible usages of hybrid power plants.

Read German article on: www.moneycab.presscab.com

Prof. A. Khalil, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Cairo sees the DESERTEC project as a huge chance for Egypt. The work on the country will increase capacity building among the EU and Egypt. The country still need to educate people about the project and he believes the “DESERTEC concept will get much more support if we can use it to produce water, as well as electricity.” Furthermore he says that Egypt, is actually in the final stage of formulating a land use agreement to allow investors to come in. If they manage to pass Feed-in tariffs by the government Egypt will have set the groundwork for starting the project.

Read article on: www.evwind.es

This week, with the assistance of the French government, the establishment of the Medgrid project will be announced in Paris. Medgrid is the new project name of the Transgreen initiative. The key aim is the construction of up to five electrical transmission lines in the Mediterranean that will connect Europe with North Africa, which will also be used by the DESERTEC initiative. “As soon as we found the company, we want to make an agreement with DESERTEC to promote Information Exchange with the aim to avoid costly duplication of work," says Managing Director of Montravel of the Medgrid initiative.

Read German article on: www.handelsblatt.com

The city of Bayreuth honors the Prince of Jordan Hassan bin Talal with the award of the Wilhelmine Prize. It recognizes hereby his commitment for the communication between the religions and for social fairness. The award went to Prince Hassan for an extraordinary lifework in one of the political most delicate regions of the world. Prince Hassan made clear, that he foresees stronger conflicts up to emigration of nations caused by the outcome of the climate change, if reserves of energy and water cannot succesfully be distributed in a just manner around the Mediterranean. Prince Hassan highlighted the international DESERTEC project as a outstanding opportunity.

Read German article on: www.frankenpost.de

Fraunhofer Institute has announced a major breakthrough in solving grid converter problems for HVDC transmission. The transmission of high voltage electricity to a converter station, which is needed at each end of a power grid transmission line, is problematic as it consists of some 5,000 semiconductor cell modules and a glitch in more than one module could prompt a chain reaction that would destroy the entire station. Fraunhofer have now solved the problem and are looking for materials which make the process less energy intense.

Read German article on: www.ecnmag.com

German Foreign Minister has visited Morocco in order to intensify the energy partnership between the two countries. “Germany and Morocco enjoy excellent relations. We want to further these at the political and, above all, the economic level,” said Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. Morocco is taking big steps towards a renewable future by establishing its own solar plan and a national agency for solar energy. Germany supports these endeavors by assuring Morocco 40 million Euros financial aid to boost solar energy projects. Being asked about the DESERTEC Project Westerwelle answered: “The DESERTEC initiative has the potential to become a milestone in energy cooperation.”

Read article on: www.isria.com

In an interview, Prof. Chiheb Bouden, Director of the Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Tunisia, discusses renewable energy in Tunisia and the DLR project Energy in the Middle East and North Africa, enerMENA. Prof. Chiheb Bouden sees “DESERTEC as an important project for Tunisia. Because Tunisia does not produce oil, we import energy. The price of energy is rising, so in the future we will have to look for alternative forms of energy production”. As Tunisia has a lot of good universities and graduates, he believes that the initiative will help create employment in the region and support the energy demands of country.

Read article on: www.dlr.de

Research by the Pike market institute has shown that the HDVC market will grow 44% from $8.4 billion in 2010 to $12.1 billion in 2015. HVDC cables are the cornerstone of effective energy transmission and are pivotal in improving energy efficiency. Industry and government leaders are increasingly finding that, in order to reap the full benefits of renewable energy and smart grid technologies, the capacity and information-carrying ability of transmission systems much be expanded substantially.

Read article on: www.businesswire.com

0"India has a lifetime opportunity to build the Concentrating Solar Power industry like China did in the wind power industry,” says Anil Srivastava, chief executive officer of Areva Renewables. The ministry for renewable energy (MNRE) has increased the maximum capacity for concentrated solar thermal projects to 100 MW.

Read article on: www.evwind.es

To explore this question more thoroughly, Bündnis 90 die Grünen hosted a panel discussion with experts from government, academia and industry: Dr. Franz Trieb of the German Center for Air and Space, Dr. Fabio Longo EUROSOLAR, MP and spokesperson for the energy industry Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Ingrid Nestle from Schleswig Holstein, Hans Hühn by GTZ, Dr. Isabelle Werenfels of the Foundation for Science and Policy and the Moroccan Ambassador Rachad Bouhlal.

Read German article and watch video on: www.gruene.wettach.org

The Dii visited Syria for preliminary studies and discuss cooperation drafts last month. DESERTEC is considering connecting Syria to their renewable energy power grid; and in partnership with Cham Holding, utilizing the Syrian desert for wind and solar energy projects. Paul van Son believes that CSP can become price competetive to conventional power sources within the next 10 years.

Read article on: www.evwind.es

The California Energy Commission has recommended approval of two more large-scale solar power plant complexes in the Southern California deserts. The projects will have a combined peak nominal production capacity of 650 megawatts. This means that over the last few months the government has authorised about 4100 MW of CSP capacities in the deserts, which would have been considered a staggering amount only one year earlier.

Read article on: www.solarhbj.com

CSP plants need sufficient cooling to operate in desert environments. Many power plants operate in very harsh conditions where water supply is minimal. To solve these problems, scientists have developed dry cooling technology that uses air to cool the power plants and use only a fraction of the water normally used. Although this is an expensive solution and power stations equipped with it cannot achieve the same efficiencies as conventional water-cooled installations, it is an important step towards large-scale solar power generation in desert conditions.

Read article on: www.dlr.de

On Wednesday (10 November) the European Commission will present its energy strategy for the coming decade, calling for investment of around 1000 billion Euros to secure the bloc's energy needs in a sustainable way. Major planned projects like offshore wind farms in the North Sea or the DESERTEC initiative will require Europe-wide coordination and different funding sources, the strategy points out.

Read article on: www.euractive.com

At the “Falling Walls” Conference in Berlin, the founding member of the DESERTEC Foundation, Dr. Gerhard Knies introduced his vision of a clean and safe energy supply for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Dr Knies brought the DESERTEC Foundation to life, to take advantage of the unlimited power in deserts. Knies believes solar energy in deserts will decrease our carbon footprint substantially and provide energy security for a world with 10 billion people.

Watch video on: www.falling-walls.com

On the sideline of the conference for the Tunis Solar Plan the Dii and the STEG Renewable Energies (STEG ER) have signed a memorandum of understanding for a pre-feasibility study of a pilot project whose power can reach 500MW. The project will provide electricity for the domestic market and will deliver to Europe, too. The memorandum also provides plans for the transfer of technologies and the exchange of know-how between the experts of the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean.

Read article on: www.zawya.com

The DESERTEC Foundation, in cooperation with the Tunisian National Advisory Council for Scientific Research and Technology, has founded a platform for scientific cooperation for DESERTEC. Founding members besides the non-profit DESERTEC Foundation are 18 universities and research facilities from North Africa and the Middle East. It is planned to expand the network to a global platform, in order to promote the realization of the DESERTEC Concept “Clean Power from Deserts” in different regions of the world.

Read article on: www.desertec.org

According to Professor Lothar Frey, director of the Fraunhofer Institute, the entire power grid needs substantial renovation in order to feed-in high voltage electricity from projects like DESERTEC. The existing cables, systems and components must be exchanged in the future energy mix, in order to minimize efficiency losses.

Read German article on: www.fraunhofer.de

In the award winning documentary "Deep Green" a number of environmentalists reveal the best solutions to prevent global warming. The documentary also looks at Germany and Spain, where a preview of the "astonishing, just-approved DESERTEC project" is given.

Read article on: www.prlog.org

The 2.6 Gigawatt project developed by Brightsource will create more than 1000 construction jobs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California attended the opening ceremony and said (at minute 3):“I just came back from China and they were bragging about that they have the biggest solar power plant, and it's true. But now after they build this one [in California] it will become the biggest solar plant in the world. It will power 170,000 homes; this is a win-win situation [for every one]. There are people that look out into the deserts and see miles and miles of emptiness. I see miles and miles of goldmines!”

View Video on: www.youtube.com

ABS describes 2009 as “the year for CSP” as a large number of plants have been planned in the Middle East and North Africa including a 1000 MW CSP plant in the United Arab Emirates. The report shows that plant sizes are starting to increase, and utilities are starting to gain interest in the technology. It also observes that the market is beginning to diversify beyond parabolic trough systems, with the US investing in research on solar tower systems. The solar tower designs are most popular as low water usage is a significant advantage in the desert regions the plants are typically constructed in.

Read article on: www.solarserver.com

EU Energy Commissioner Oettinger is proposing European wide feed-in tariffs for North African solar power. On a different note, the Government of Morocco is already on the way with its own solar plan and has rushed ahead with plans to create 1.5 billion Euros solar thermal power plants with combined capacities of 500 megawatts - an additional 1,500 MW are to follow.

Read German article on: www.welt.de

EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger assured that the European Union will do everything they can to break down the political barriers that still hinder the DSERTEC project and is committed to work together with its partners in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East to promote a fast and swift implementation.

Read article on: www.energia.gr

Bernhard Zymla, head of the Energy and Transport division of the Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) explains that his institutions most significant aim with DESERTEC is to foster a sustainable energy supply in the MENA region and to promote efficient energy management. Zymla sees the project as a key aspect in fostering developmental progress.

Read article on: www.solarnovus.com

A study by the Solar Energy Industry Association and GTM Research has indicated that the US Solar power market is to grow 114% in 2010. This year alone almost 1000MW of new capacities have been set up, thanks to state subsidies and lower production costs. The study has also proven the huge support solar power has in the country, it found out that 94% of US citizens believe it is important for the country to use and develop solar power, while 80% think that Congress should consider reallocating federal subsidies from fossil fuels to solar.

Read article on: www.ifandp.com

In an interview for Solar Novus today, Katrin-Susanne Richter from the DESERTEC Foundation and Alexander Mohanty from the Dii GmbH explain the different roles the two institutions have in the implementation of the DESERTEC project. Katrin-Susanne Richter explains how: “as a non-profit association, we are the "guardian of the concept" and the holistic approach. Our focus is the creation of energy security together with climate protection.” Whilst Alexander Mohanty sees the Dii’s mission: “to enable the rollout of the DESERTEC Concept by developing an economic, political and regulatory framework for feasible investments into renewable energy and interconnected grids. (...) for the period up to 2050.”

Read article on: www.solarnovus.com

At the 4th Climate Forum in Thun, Dr Gerhard Knies presented the DESERTEC Concept in front of 450 representatives from business, politics and science. “For 20 years people considered me to be crazy” but that changed after the world oil shock and climate change, says the 72 year old´.

Read german article on: www.bernerzeitung.ch

RWE has announced that the work on the world's largest wind farm, 120 Miles off the coast of England, has commenced. Projections show that the wind farm will be finished by 2020 and will produce 1,400 Megawatt of electricity.

Read article on: www.polijam.com

"CSP Today" has published its annual CSP world map which indicates a list of all CSP projects that are announced, under construction or in operation worldwide. To download the map please visit:

www.csptoday.com/csp/csp-world-map.pdf

Read article on www.evwind.es

The head of the DESERTEC project at Siemens, Bernd Utz, has explained in an interview that the European Union has to set up the regulatory framework “which allows renewable energy to be transported and traded across borders. In North Africa we have to garner support and explain how the technology works.

Read german article on www.tagesspiegel.de

Morocco has intensified its endeavors of producing green electricity. It hopes to become less reliant on foreign energy exports and to create an economic sector, which even can export green technology and energy in the future. HRM King Mohammed the VI himself has participated in the opening ceremony of a wind park which happens to be largest in Africa. Although the country has not ruled out nuclear energy as an alternative source of power for the future, Morocco has the ambitious target of producing 42% of power with renewables by 2020.

Read article on www.news24.com

A joint venture between NSTAR and Northeast Utilities has signed an agreement to install a huge HVDC transmission line to connect Canada and the USA. The line will run from the Canadian border to southern New Hampshire and will interconnect the US-Canadian border with a new HVDC line. The construction of the 1.1 billion US-Dollar line will begin in 2013.

Read article on www.renewgridmag.com

The European Commission plans new rules to simplify permission procedures for power lines in and across European countries. The concept plans to connect neighboring countries with electricity lines in order to enable energy projects such as DESERTEC. Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger will attempt to draw on EU funding to part finance major projects.

Read german article on www.euractiv.de

The Italian power grid operator Terna became 18th member of the Dii. Terna is the world’s seventh largest grid operator, with 62,000 km of transmission lines. The industrial initiative will create a framework for the implementation of DESERTEC in EU-MENA by the end of 2012. Italy is pivotal to the DESERTEC project due to its geographical location and proximity to Tunisia, said CEO Paul van Son.

Read german article on www.boersennews.de

American researchers from 3M have developed mirrors that reflect 3% better than conventional mirrors and are much lighter. The 75% reduction in weight allows the formation of larger CSP plants and lowers the cost of production. 3M is an associate member of Dii which promotes the DESERTEC Concept in the EU-MENA region.

Read german article on www.welt.de

Geophysicist Ernst Rauch confirmed: DESERTEC's first solar thermal power plant will "most likely" arise in Morocco. 2012 could be the ground-breaking ceremony. After fulfilling the countries own demand, the electricity could be transported via the already existing electricity line between Morocco and Spain.

Read german article on www.fr-online.de

Prime Minister, Mr. Mohamed Ghannouchi of Tunisia will host the Solar International Conference in Tunnis between the 29th and 31st of October. It underlines Tunisia's commitment of becoming a platform for the manufacturing and export of solar technology. Tunisia attempts to increase its share of solar energy profoundly and has set up the "Tunisian Solar Plan" which is part of similar international projects such as DESERTEC and Transgreen.

Read article on www.tunisisaonlinenews.com

Read article on www.ecoseed.org

Read German article on www.euractiv.de

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DESERTEC, one of the biggest infrastructure projects in history will have to overcome several challenges in order to realize its potential. The implementation of the plan involves coordinating a vast amount of social, economic and political interest groups with many different objectives.

Read article on www.bloomberg.com

Read German article on www.jetzt.sueddeutsche.de

Read article on www.renewableenergyfocus.com

Read article on www.english.globalarabnetwork.com

Read article on www.evwind.es

Read article on www.utilities-me.com

Read article on www.btimes.com

The Chinese government has established a National Energy Commission (NEC). This “Super Ministry“ is composed of 21 members, mostly ministers from other fields, such as finance or development. Headed by the Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself, the NEC is responsible for drafting national energy development plans, reviewing energy security and coordinating international cooperation. Insiders say that this step indicates the importance of energy issues for the development of China.

Read article on www.chinadaily.com

The IEA reports Australia could generate 5 per cent of its electricity from CSP.  The IEA indicated CSP should be a competitive form of peak and intermediate power by 2020, and of base load power by 2025 to 2030. The IEA went even further, reporting that CSP would be able to provide 40 per cent of Australia’s electricity by 2050. 

Read article on www.businessspectator.com.au

Despite the economic crisis, the CSP industry has encountered significant growth worldwide. Especially Spain serves as role model due to its feed-in tariffs for the next 1.5 GW CSP under construction. Additionally, the USA, Australia, India and the Mediterranean states are initiating remarkable CSP projects, promising further growth. After all, governmental support is the premise for successful implementations.

Read article on www.evwind.es

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 Read article on EUROPOLITICS.info

The North African sun radiation might become a true cash cow for the states in this region. As the demand of energy is dramatically increasing worldwide, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Lybia might have the chance to finally use their potentials.

Read article on ITWEB.co.za

Read German article on www.focus.de

"Ain Beni Mathar" is the first solar pilot plant in the Moroccan-Algerian border area. Till 2020 King Mohammed VI plans to build up further locations to centuplicate the installed capacity of at least 2,000 megawatt.  The government in Rabat is planning to mobilize nine billion dollars for their own "plan solaire maroccain". DESERTEC can make a significant contribution.

Read German article on www.welt.de

The US-government, under President Barack Obama, plans a major investment in the solar energy industry. There is a plan for a $ 2 billion dollar solar plant in Arizona. The project, called “Solana“, is supposed to be built by the Spanish Abengoa Solar company and the US firm Abound Solar Manufacturing. The state-of-the-art plant, Solana, is said to provide more than 5,000 new jobs and generate electricity for 70,000 households.

read article on bbc.co.uk

The DESERTEC university network is an academic research network, aiming at an interconnection of MENA researchers in the field of desert technologies.

The network arose from a cooperation of the Tunisian National Advisory Council for Scientific Research and Technology and the DESERTEC Foundation.

Read article on lapresse.tn (french)

Read article on zwaya.com (english)

The state of Morocco strives for an energy change. As the only North African country without oil, the kingdom discovers its enormous capability as a location for renewable energies. On June 28th, King Mohammed VI inaugurated a brand new wind farm, which is only a fraction of an investment in the renewable energy sector with a total capacity of 3 billion US-Dollars. Morocco puts huge efforts in the development of its energy infrastructure, to become an integral part of DESERTEC.

Read article on energyboom.com

The state of Abu Dhabi decided to build a CSP-Plant in Medinat, 80 miles south from Abu Dhabi City. The project, baptised „Shams 1“, will be the biggest CSP-Plant ever built. „Shams 1“ will produce 100 megawatts and save 170.000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. It will be the first plant that meets the UN‘s Clean Development Mechanism.

Read Article on popsci.com

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Günther Öttinger, EU-Energy Commissioner, met with the energy ministers of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria in Algier. The outcome is “ministerial declaration“, aiming at the integration of the european and the north african electricity grid. This measure enhances the feasibility of capital investments in the northern african electricity industry and paves the way for DESERTEC.

read article on europa.eu (only french)

The study shows: solar power from the Earth's sun-belt can provide 20 percent of mankind's energy demands by the year 2050, and thus greatly contributes to the compliance with the 2-degrees climate-protection goal.
 CO2-emissions from electricity production, heating and in transportation could decline by 80 percent, by the year 2050, through an interaction of energy-saving measures with decentralized and internationally interconnected renewable energies.
 If the implementation of renewable energies were strongly supported, fuel costs in the amount of 5,000 billion Euros could be saved. This amount would be more than enough to rearrange the global electricity supply and moreover, it would create approximately 8.5 million jobs in the renewable energy industry.

Read entire study on greenpeace.org

EU Energy Commissioner, Günther Öttinger, steps in for DESERTEC after a meeting with the energy ministers from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Öttinger mentions DESERTEC as “a two-way partnership“, being beneficial for EUMENA and announces that solar-energy will begin to be imported within the next five years.

Read article on reuters.com

France is forming a group of companies to lay an undersea power network called Transgreen that could also transport electricity from the DESERTEC solar power project from North Africa to Europe across the Mediterranean.

read article on bloomberg.com

A new report from the IEA says that the United States could position itself as the global leader in producing utility-scale solar power from deserts. The report also foresee 11,3% of global electricity by 2050 provided by CSP. The biggest game changer for CSP would be the success of the DESERTEC industrial initiative.

read article on guardian.co.uk

The IEA says the largest producer of CSP will be North America, followed by North Africa and India. Solar energy companies have high hopes for DESERTEC, a scheme focusing on solar power generation in deserts.

read article on upi.com

Saudi Arabia’s national oil company expects solar, wind and other renewable forms of energy to play an increased role in meeting global demand for fuels and power through 2030. Beside projects to reduce its own oil consumption, Saudi officials are also considering participation in the DESERTEC project to export parts of the produced solar energy to Europe.

read article on rechargenews.com

Chakib Khelil, Algerian Energy Minister announced that the DESERTEC project was under consideration, implying that he supported this initiative.

read article on lemagrehbdz.com (only French)

Spain approves all the projects of desert power such as DESERTEC and the Mediterranean Solar Plan and shows interest in the subject being the first European country having yet solar thermal power plants and being the only country having a power line to Africa.

read article on elpais.com (only spanish)

The many cloudless days and the huge availability of unused desert area make this part of the world suitable for the extraction of solar energy. The North African governments are adapting their existing energy policy for the changes to come in their energy economy.

Read article on happynews.nl (only Dutch)

Support for the DESERTEC Industrial Initiative is growing in all areas of business life. Amonfg the new partners there are Bilfinger Berger, the Commerzbank, Evonik, IBM Germany and the Austrian oil and gas company OMV.

Read Dii-Pressrelease

As the cost of carbon is playing into the economics of energy production, CSP is looking increasingly promising, it holds two trump cards: efficiency and scale. This could lower the costs of desert made power such as in the DESERTEC project.

read article on guardian.co.uk

The Middle East continues to dominate the world's petroleum production, but priorities appear to be shifting and the countries are becoming aware of their potential for renewable energy. The DESERTEC concept could jump-start a transformation in the energy economies of the region.

read article on earthtimes.org

Fears that the solar project DESERTEC will place its first test plant in Western Sahara are unfounded. "When looking for project sites, DESERTEC Industrial Initiative will also take political, ecological or cultural issues into consideration", a spokesperson from the DESERTEC industrial initiative (Dii) said.

read article on guardian.co.uk

DESERTEC-Founder Dr. Gerhard Knies shares his thoughts on the future of power transmission and distribution in Europe in an interview.

Read Article on prfire.co.uk

In an interview, Bernd Utz talks about the DESERTEC project, its advantages and technological feasibility.

Read Article on africanmanager.com (only French)

In Kuraymat, the €250 million installation uses a hybrid solar-thermal and gas-fired combined cycle technology. Kuraymat will have a generation capacity of 150 megawatts (MW), with 20MW coming from the solar array. The solar components have been supplied by the Solar Millennium and Ferrostaal joint-venture Flagsol.

Read article on rechargenews.com

Read article on cleantechnica.com

The Israeli infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau went to Germany, to meet leading companies in renewable energy and the German energy minister, to promote Israel’s integration in the DESERTEC project. 

Read article (google translation)

German industrial company Bilfinger Berger has joined the DESERTEC industrial initiative as an Associated Partner.

Read article on online.wsj.com

Nur Energie, a solar project developer with operations in France, Italy, Greece and Tunisia, has joined the DESERTEC Industrial Initiative (Dii) as an Associated Partner.

Read article on prnewswire.com

Oliver Steinmetz, from the European Investment Bank, is a co-founder and board member for the DESERTEC Foundation. In the interview he speaks about how the MENA countries and companies could get involved in the project and how DESERTEC can benefit the MENA countries.

Read article on greenprophet.com

In its April issue the Diplomatic Magazine is dedicated to the economic potential of Morocco and examines various sides of the spectacular DESERTEC project, which will produce power from the desert. Gerhard Knies, the father of the project is represented with a commentary in the diplomatic magazine.

Read article on diplomatisches-magazin.de (english at the bottom of the page)

The Siemens renewable energy division CEO René Umlauft answered questions about DESERTEC in an interview and exposed all the advantages of the project. 

Read article on ecoticias.com (only Spanish)

The European commission is pressing ahead with plans to establish an energy agency which could open for business by March next year. Seen as regulator, it could eventually restrict national policymaking but could also give important impetus developing a European "supergrid" and large scale projects such as DESERTEC or the North Sea wind power.

Read article on guardian.co.uk

France is working on plans for a consortium of companies to build a vast network of undersea electricity lines to bring solar power from Africa to Europe. The project, called Transgreen, is supposed to complement the DESERTEC project.

Read article on africasia.com

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Four companies have joined the Dii. The new shareholders are Enel Green Power (Italy), NAREVA Holding (Morocco), Red Eléctrica de España (Spain) and Saint-Gobain Solar (France).

Read Dii Press release

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Read article about Red electrica de espana on lavanguardia.es (only Spanish)

Read article about enel on borsaitaliana.it (only italian)

Read article about nareva on moroccoboard.com

Read article about Saint-Gobain on boursier.com (only French)

Lebanon’s Water and Energy Minister Jibran Bassil said that technical and legislative changes need to take place in order to introduce renewable energy in the country. His ministry is targeting 12 percent of renewable energy by 2020.

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The European Commission could help pave the way for a continental super grid capable of easily transmitting renewable energy across borders by adopting plans an integrated European energy market and setting new rules for the cross border trade of electricity. This would help large-scale renewable energy projects, such as DESERTEC or the giant offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

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The U.S. solar power company First Solar joins the Dii as an Associated Partner.

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A German-French amity group from politicians from both countries visited the Dii-member SCHOTT. During the meeting on the contribution of solar technology for inter-country expansion of renewable energies, the SCHOTT AG presented the DESERTEC project.

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The Dii announced the construction of a pilot plant in Morocco. The country offers vide spaces in the Sahara and windy coasts, which makes the country attractive for renewable energy.

Read article on reussirbusiness.com (only French)

The £250 billion cost of developing the Canadian tar sands mine could be use otherwise. The money could help to decarbonise the western economy by funding ambitious solar power schemes such as DESERTEC.

Read article on guardian.co.uk

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France and Morocco will work together to assure the success of the Moroccan Solar Plan, which previews 2 GW of Solar power production in Morocco until 2019.

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Five countries are failing to meet goals for renewable energy but they could make up their quotas by buying electricity from North Africa. This could help the DESERTEC project, and provide a boost for renewable energy in North Africa.

Read article on greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com

E.ON proclaimed solar power to be the second pillar of its renewable strategy. To achieve this plan, E.ON acquired a solar developer, created a CSP venture with Abengoa and participates on DESERTEC.

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Deutsche Bank Vice president Mark Dominik: "Much more initiative and leadership must be provided by the private sector – particularly around iconic and mega-projects like the DESERTEC Industrial Initiative, which aims to produce 15% of Europe's power from clean sources in the Sahara – with governments responding by putting in place the appropriate enabling policy framework."

read article on euractiv.com

Federal Economics Minister Rainer Brüderle (FDP) announced that the German government will support the desert power project. As possible helps, are mentioned Export guarantees and research funding. In addition, a Task Force was established for further coordination between the DESERTEC Initiative and the Federal Government.

read article on enerzine.com (only French)

The DESERTEC Industrial Initiative will work with Morocco to arrange negotiations with the European Union to provide feed-in tariffs for electricity produced by CSP in the desert.

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His Majesty King Mohammed VI: “allow me to point out that Morocco looks forward to exploring, with the European Union, all the opportunities to be created by regional projects, such as DESERTEC, in order to lay the foundations of a well-defined, safe, sustainable Euro-Mediterranean energy policy.”

read article on map.ma

Tunisia is planning several projects for the production of renewable energy in the next years and seeks to become an international model for the production and export of solar energy.

read article on alwasatnews.com (google translation)

The Italian site Casa & Clima gives an overview on the DESERTEC concept.

read article on casaclima.com (only italian)

In the windpower sector the North Sea Region is very well equipped with offshore-windplants, in the desert Regions around the equator, one can find projects like the DESERTEC project. In the article you may find a shortlist of the present established large-scale projects in the wind- and solarenegry field.

read article on epochtimes.co.il (google translation)

The Italian power company Enel would like to take part in the consortium for the DESERTEC solar power project in North Africa.

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Morocco’s project for renewable energy will cost up to 9 billion USD. But still the experts haven’t chosen the appropriate technology. The debate opposes the photovoltaic technology to the solar thermal. The solar thermal choice is more suitable to fit with the strategy of international programs such as DESERTEC.

Read article on lematin.ma (only French)

During a summit about water resources in Switzerland Prince Hassan of Jordan promoted the DESERTEC concept, pointing out the additional benefit of drinking water, gained through the process of water desalination.

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During a radio-interview, the Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil presented the central aims of Algerians energy policy in the upcoming years. Among other things he talked about the DESERTEC-project and the importance to negotiate an energy agreement with Europe.

Read article on latribune-online.com (French Only)

The Rajasthan Desert in India is similar to the North African. Due to high levels of available sunlight, CSP plants in Rajasthan could begin satisfying most of India’s energy needs in just a few years.

Read article on triplepundit.com

The Tunesian Secretary for  Renewable Energies, Abderrazak Rassàa announced a national solar plan for Tunesia. This could contribute to large-scale-projects like DESERTEC or the Plan Solaire Méditerranéen (PSM).

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E.ON president Wulf Bernotat invites French Energy-Companies to engage themselves in the DESERTEC-Project.

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A study compiled by the group “Beyond Zero Emissions”, shows that in 10 years, Australia can provide the hole electricity needs by 40 percent of wind power and 60 percent of solar power, using technologies that are already available.

Read Article on solveclimate.com

In an international conference for renewable energies, Israel and Egypt talked about a possible common solar-project in the Sinai desert. A partnership seems obvious: Egypt owns huge areas with perfect conditions for the launch of solar-thermal-energy plants and Israel has the necessary technologies.

Read Article on sustainablebusiness.com

Five companies from  Morocco, Tunesia, Spain, France and Italy could possibly step by to the Dii on March 2010.

Read Article on af.reuters.com

As part of the Tunisian Solar Plan, an experimental 250 MW photovoltaic plant, including batteries, will be built at Borj-Cedria.

Read article on africanmanager.com (only French)

Due to the increasing demand in steel worldwide through huge projects like the DESERTEC industrial initiative and the implementation of wind-power in China, Ukraine is confident that the demand for steel will rise.

Read article on focus.ua (Google Translation)

The enerMENA research network was launched under the direction of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to support the technical and socio-economic implementation of the DESERTEC concept.

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The British energy minister Lord Hunt promised on a DESERTEC seminar at the House of Commons, that the project will be seriously considered by the European Commission.

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China's prime minister Wang Jiabao considers ecological modernization strategic crucial. Therefore DESERTEC might become the role model for a domestic solar thermal Power generation in China. The budget for environment will be represented by 0,9 % per capita GDP - this is 0,1 % for Research and Developement.

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The French AREVA Group, one of the leading companies in the nuclear industry, has acquired for approximately 200 - 250 million USD AUSRA, the supplier for large solar thermal power plants. By acquiring and entering the solar-thermal business, AREVA could become an interesting partner for DESERTEC.

read article on industry.bnet.com

Tunisia wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mainly CO2, and is preparing its own solar plan.

Read article on infotunisie.com (only French)

Germany and France have announced to be working together more closely in terms of energy and climate policies. It is planned to establish a joint office for Renewable Energies, and the creation of the political framework and the development of cross-border projects such as DESERTEC.

Read article on france-allemagne.fr (Only in French)

At a conference in London, Lord Hunt, the British State Minister for Energy, praised Morocco's attitude and interest in DESERTEC and reiterated the statement that the British government was behind the project and will support it in public.

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The French ambassador in Spain Bruno Delaye talked in an interview about the project for transporting renewable energy between the two countries, called “Transgreen”. It could be complementary to the power production project DESERTEC.

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At a conference of the German-Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Christina Wittek, director of Renewable Energy, of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology has reminded that the DESERTEC project was a private initiative and would be financed privately. The state was merely there to ensure the legal framework.

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Gianluigi Angelantoni, presedent of Archimede Solar Energy Srl, a Joint Venture of the Italian company Angelantoni Industrie Spa and Siemens Energy (owning 28%) talking in an interview about the new technologies for DESERTEC like the DSG (direct steam generation), or the use of compressed gas as a heat conductor.

Read article on qualenergia.it (Only Italian)

On the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Siemens AG, Peter Löscher, CEO of Siemens, spoke about DESERTEC, and pointed out that Siemens is the key technology-partner in the implementation of this "pioneering effort".

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