16 Facts About DESERTEC

DESERTEC is a foundation that promotes the production of renewable energy in deserts.

DESERTEC was developed by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation, a voluntary organization founded in 2003 by the Club of Rome and the National Energy Research Center Jordan, made up of scientists and experts from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

In 2009, the DESERTEC Foundation founded the Munich-based industrial initiative 'Dii GmbH' together with partners from the industrial and finance sectors.

DESERTEC concept was originated with Dr Gerhard Knies, a German particle physicist and founder of the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation network of researchers.

The DESERTEC concept was developed further by TREC – an international network of scientists, experts and politicians from the field of renewable energies – founded in 2003 by the Club of Rome and the National Energy Research Center Jordan.

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DESERTEC Foundation was founded on 20 January 2009 with the aim of promoting the implementation of the DESERTEC Concept for clean power from deserts all over the world.

The Medgrid together with DESERTEC would serve as the backbone of the European super grid and the benefits of investing in HVDC technology are being assessed to reach the final goal – the supersmart grid.

DESERTEC is a global renewable energy solution based on harnessing sustainable power from the sites where renewable sources of energy are at their most abundant.

The DESERTEC organisations promote the generation of electricity in North Africa, the Middle East and Europe using renewable sources, such as solar power plants, wind parks, and develop a Euro-Mediterranean electricity network, primarily made up of high voltage direct current transmission cables.

Under the DESERTEC proposal, concentrating solar power systems, photovoltaic systems and wind parks would be spread over the wide desert regions in North Africa like the Sahara Desert and all its subdivisions.

In March 2012, the DESERTEC Foundation started working in a further focus region.

The DESERTEC Foundation sees such a grid as an important step towards the implementation of DESERTEC in Greater East Asia and has already conducted a feasibility study on potential grid corridors to make best use of the region's desert sun.

DESERTEC Concept was developed by an international network of politicians, academics and economists, called TREC.

The basic studies relating to DESERTEC were led by DLR scientist Dr Franz Trieb working for the Institute for Technical Thermodynamics at the DLR.

In 2011, the DESERTEC Foundation started to evaluate projects that could serve as models for the implementation of DESERTEC according to its sustainability criteria.

Since the Euro-Mediterranean projects, Medgrid and DESERTEC are both attempting to generate solar energy from deserts and complement each other, a MoU was signed on 24 November 2011 between Medgrid and Dii to study, design and promote an interconnected electrical grid linking both projects.