When Africa Counts to the Aid of Europe
By Staff writer
Images of the dreadful Fukushima - Japan nuclear energy catastrophe have left the world in a dilemma, whether to still adopt the expensive technology or to put an end to the atom. Quick with a strategic determination, Germany announced the first permanent cessation of its nuclear power plants by 2020, followed by Austria, Switzerland and Denmark.
Drawing from this turn of events in Europe, an ambitious project that launches Africa in the race for renewable energy is underway. An Afro-European project proposes to build in North Africa several solar and wind power plants that provide electricity to European countries.
Morocco and Algeria are at the forefront of the project Desertec. Desertec, the name of the initiative aimed to connect solar and wind farms in Sahara Desert to European consumers. The first solar power plants will be Moroccan and Algerian but other stations will be established in Tunisia, Mali, Chad, Libya, Sudan and Egypt.
This project is led by a consortium that brings together, under the label Dii (Desertec industrial intitiative), manufacturers such as Siemens and banks like Deutsche Bank, supported by the German Green Party and Greenpeace, as well as the European Union (EU). Total estimated cost: nearly 400 billion Euros should be invested in Africa over the period of 40 years.
Experts of the foundation Desertec say, in 6 hours deserts receive the energy equivalent of the world consumption of an entire year. Production is expected to start around the year 2015 or 2016, in the best case.
The project has won the support of the corporate world but has yet to gain large-scale backing from governments. It is counting on nations from both sides of the Mediterranean to build the power plants, lay down the transmission lines and, most crucially, put down the cash.
Desertec represents an important economic opportunity for Africa. In addition to developing new industries, this project will create jobs in deserted areas that suffer from a profound disparity with coastal areas and thus stimulate local development.
Morocco, the only North African nation without oil resources stands to be the testing ground for a planned €400 billion renewable energy network to criss-cross the Mediterranean.The country is seen as a promising site for renewables because of its abundant sunshine and its government's eagerness to embrace solar energy.
"We think in the long term that Morocco can become one of the net exporters to the Spanish market," says Isidoro Tapia Ramirez, the general secretary of the Spanish Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving, Spain's renewable energy agency.
Through a partnership with a public-private body called the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen), Morocco has won the first pilot project: a solar power plant of 500 megawatts in Tamezghitene (located 10 km north of Ouarzazate). Most of the production will be exported to Europe, for an investment of two billion euros. Morocco hosted the first meeting of the Dii Group on 12 May 2011. A week later, on 19 May, Youcef Yousfi, Minister of Energy and Mines of Algeria, received Paul Van Son, President of the DII.
"Our cooperation with Masen may spark a new era of cross-continent cooperation," says Paul van Son.
Algeria joins the league of the ambitious project though has its own state owned solar electricity project separate from Desertec. They signed the project at President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s initiative. In November 2010, Bouteflika had already met Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, and they talked about this bright idea. A local manufacturing of solar panels near Algiers could be integrated in the project.