DESERTEC has created a new vision of energy supply based on a joint cooperation between countries, regions, big companies and smaller industries to harvest the power of the sun.

The DESERTEC Foundation is a charitable initiative of the Club of Rome composed of dedicated citizens to provide a suitable platform for this cooperation. The founding meeting of the DESERTEC Industrial Initiative (DII) will be held on July 13, 2009 by invitation of Münchener Rück and the DESERTEC Foundation.

There is an inevitable need for energy production and no matter which path is taken there will be financial expenditures connected to it. The central objective of the DII is to ensure clean, lasting, cost effective energy to our future generations. This possibility has been proven achievable by the German Aerospace Center on the study of desert energy.

Friedrich Führ, member of the board of directors for the DESERTEC Foundation, “The DESERTEC Concept has the best capacity for economic programs. It promotes the industry because it invests private contributions into renewable energies. It does not subsidize outdated technology, but focuses on the core challenges of the future: Energy decline, water and food shortage, and the drastic reduction of CO2 output. The regions of North Africa and the Middle East have the capability to accelerate the industrialization, creation of workplaces, produce clean energy, and substantial energy for the desalination of sea water for the growing population demand. Moreover, the necessary basic conditions must be created and existing barriers be removed.”

The DESERTEC Concept describes the perspective of a sustainable supply of electricity for Europe (EU), the Middle East (ME) and North Africa (NA) up to the year 2050. It shows that a transition to competitive, secure and compatible supply is possible using renewable energy sources and efficiency gains, and fossil fuels as backup for balancing power.

A close cooperation between EU and MENA for market introduction of renewable energy and interconnection of electricity grids by high-voltage direct-current transmission are keys for economic and physical survival of the whole region. However, the necessary measures will take at least two decades to become effective. Therefore, adequate policy and economic frameworks for their realization must be introduced immediately. The role of sustainable energy to secure freshwater supplies based on seawater desalination is also addressed.

In order to find a viable transition to an electricity supply that is inexpensive, compatible with the environment and based on secure resources, rigorous criteria must be applied to ensure that the results are compatible with a comprehensive definition of sustainability. A central criterion for power generation is its availability at any moment on demand. Today, this is achieved by consuming stored fossil or nuclear energy sources that can provide electricity whenever and wherever required. This is the easiest way to provide power on demand. However, consuming the stored energy reserves of the globe has a high price: they are quickly depleted and their residues contaminate the planet.

With the exception of hydropower, natural flows of energy are not widely used for power generation today, because they are not as easily stored and exploited as fossil or nuclear fuels. Some of them can be stored with a reasonable technical effort for a limited time-span, but others must be taken as provided by nature. The challenge of future electricity supply is to find a mix of available technologies and resources that is capable of satisfying not only the criterion of “power on demand”, but all the other criteria for sustainability too.

The DESERTEC WhiteBook describes a scenario of electricity demand and supply opportunities by renewable energy in the integrated EUMENA region up to the middle of the century, and confirms the importance of international cooperation to achieve economic and environmental sustainability.