Solar energy: harvesting desert sunshine

 

Foreseing a future reduction of fossil fuels availability, a German company intends to harvest sunshine from the empty deserts of North Africa and the Middle East using solar energy technology. It aims at using it to produce clean power for the region and Europe. A pilot project is being setup in Morocco to demonstrate feasibility. The company expects to see the first electricity flowing through undersea cables from Morocco to Spain as early as 2014. Its long-term goal is to use desert power to supply up to 100% of local needs and up to 15% of European demand by 2050. Many countries with intense sunshine such as the United States also have large tracts of uninhabited land. Is solar energy in the desert, a solution to our future ?