Energy in the News: Desertec Africa-to-Europe Power Project in Trouble

BBC News is reporting that an ambitious project to generate huge amounts of renewable power in North Africa, and transmit it to Europe is in trouble. According the the article, two large companies, Siemens and Bosch, have pulled out of the Desertec project, and the government of Spain has recently decided not to sign a declaration of intent to provide funding for the project.

The overall goal of this plan is to increase the usage of renewable energy technologies such as concentrating solar power and photovoltaic plants by building them in sun-rich places like the Sahara desert, and use high voltage direct-current undersea cables to transmit it to Europe. Desertec is also looking at similar projects in Asia.

Siemens has recently announced that is leaving the solar business to concentrate on wind and hydro power technology, and this could have been a factor in its decision to pull out of Desertec. Whether they have their eye on LENR as a major player in the energy market is unknown at this point, but Desertec is the kind of project that would be in danger of becoming obselete should a LENR power production become a reality.