EUROPE NEWS
wiredInUSA - December 2011
21
Morocco has been chosen as the first
location for a German-led, €400bn
project to build a vast network of solar
and wind farms across North Africa
and the Middle East to provide 15%
of Europe’s electricity supply by 2050.
The Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii), a
coalition of companies including E.ON,
Siemens, Munich Re and Deutsche
Bank, announced at its annual
conference that “all systems are go in
Morocco” with construction of the first
phase of a 500MW solar farm scheduled
to start next year. The precise location
of the €2bn plant is yet to be finalized,
but it is expected to be built near the
desert city of Ouarzazate. It will use
parabolic mirrors to generate heat
for conventional steam turbines,
as opposed to the photovoltaic
cells used in the UK.
The 12km
2
Moroccan solar farm will,
said Paul van Son, Dii’s chief executive,
be a “reference project” to prove
to investors and policy makers in both
Europe and the Middle East/North
Africa (MENA) region that the Desertec
vision can be a major source
of renewable electricity in the
decades ahead.
Discussions are already underway
with the Tunisian government about
building a solar farm, he said, and
Algeria is the next “obvious” country,
due to its close proximity to western
Europe’s grid. Countries such as Libya,
Egypt, Turkey, Syria and Saudi Arabia
are predicted to start joining the
network from 2020, as a network
of high voltage direct current cables
are built and extended across
the wider region.
Morocco to host first solar farm
in €400bn renewables network
