Desertec's de facto death

Five years after its founding, the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii) admitted only a tiny fraction of its former operations would be upheld as funding issues and previous technological miscalculations had seen droves of partner companies bowing out of the project that had been planned to last for at least half a century.

The Desertec initiative had originally set out to promote solar energy in North Africa and parts of the Middle East and to eventually pave the way from solar electricity to be transported from those regions to Europe with a view to eventually covering some 15 percent of the Continent's energy needs by 2050.

But during their two-day meeting in Rome, Dii officials said only utility Acwa Power and Chinese grid operator SGCC would remain on board as consulting partners.

Grand vision gone

Despite the major setback, outgoing Dii chief Paul van Son said Tuesday the work done so far had not been in vain.

"Some 70 projects have already been implemented or are close to completion," he said. "We've drawn up concrete strategies for a number of target nations, but this phase is over and Dii is adapting to the new realities."

Spats over funding and a changing political framework in North Africa following the so-called Arab Spring revolutions had earlier seen the departure of important partner firms such as Siemens, Bosch, Eon and Bilfinger.

hg/sgb (dpa, Reuters)