European government and industry have been eyeing tracts of sun-drenched, vacant land in North Africa and the Middle East for some time. And now, officials and business executives are beginning to sweat out the details that could see renewable power sprouting in the desert. Full Story »
Posted by Derek Hawkins
Very cutting-edge, as per Scientific American; an interesting irony that Europe--ahead of the US in solar development--should look to Africa.
“Europe should be ready to financially support clean power provided by North Africa,” Knies said. Europe will need reliable, always-on electricity in the future from renewable sources, and North Africa needs investment — a win-win for both, he said. “This is exactly the moment for this kind of thing,” said David Wheeler, a senior fellow at the nonprofit Center for Global Development in Washington. The United States is gearing up for gigawatts of investment in solar thermal in the Southwest, he noted, and the same is being seen in Rajasthan, India, and in China.
