DESERTEC is a foundation, established in January 2009, aimed to use the renewable and sustainable energy generated in deserts and arid regions worldwide in order to supply as many people and businesses as possible with renewable, clean energy.
Desert image. Picture from Felix Garcia (Flickr) (CC BY 2.0)
The deserts of the world offer an enormous source of sustainable energy, especially in the form of direct sunlight and wind. It has been calculated that within 6 hours, deserts receive more energy from the sun than humankind consumes within a year. Using appropriate technology this renewable energy can be transformed into electricity and transported to the demand points with minimal losses over thousands of kilometers.
The idea for the large-scale utilization of sustainable energy sources from deserts and arid regions was put forward in the 80s by the German physicist Gerhard Knies. Nowadays, the foundation is formed by public figures, private individuals, politicians and scientists from North Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
The use of widely known technologies to generate electricity is one of the advantages of this initiative. Photovoltaics (PV), wind energy and Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) are the main technologies to be used. PV panel prices have fallen sharply in the recent years making the electricity generated from PV systems competitive with electricity generated from conventional sources. Windmills installation is also a technology well-established on the market in many countries too. The CSP technology provides the ability to store energy, a crucial aspect to guarantee the success of the project.
According to studies prepared by DESERTEC foundation, the solar power to be produced in South Europe, Middle East and North Africa would be of the order of 630,000 TWh/year which represents 110 times the potential of biomass, geothermal, wind power (off-shore excluded) and hydropower all together for the same regions and 165 times the energy demand on the countries of that regions (EU-25, Middle East and North Africa). This shows the big potential of using only partly the solar energy of the deserts and arid regions to cover the energy demand without using fossil fuels and generating greenhouse gases.
DESERTEC project aims to harness the largest source of energy on earth: solar power from deserts and provide clean and sustainable energy to the world population, considering that more than 90% of the world‘s population live within 3,000 km of a desert and may receive clean energy from the project. DESERTEC offers an integrated solution to energy problem of the coming decades by using technologies that are proven and can be put in place forthwith.
The DESERTEC project pursues the use of renewable energies according to the criteria of sustainability. This means that both environmental and socio-economic aspects are considered.