Desertec: Tunisia or Morocco? Foundation or Dii?

SolaNovus Today

WRITTEN BY ANDREAS BREYER

Desertec_Dii_Blog The current status of the Desertec program—and where it’s taking place is confusing. The industry consortium Dii has just communicated that the planning phase of the first reference project in Morocco is on schedule and the decision regarding the final location of the plant might even be made in the coming weeks. Then, it has to be decided whether PV or CSP technology is being installed to which extent, until energy production is expected to begin between 2014 and 2016. Thereference project in which Dii acts as an enabler wants to demonstrate the export feasibility of solar generated electricity in the deserts to Europe, using existing lines between Spain and Morocco.
In the meantime, Desertec Foundation, the intellectual carrier of the idea to generate large-scale renewable energy in the deserts, began to promote a power plant project in Tunesia: “TuNur”, a project that was already planned for some time outside the Desertec umbrella, has been evaluated and meets the criteria for an official DESERTEC-project, according to the Foundation. Based on tower technology, according to DESERTEC Foundation, the project is expected to create a high local content and thus up to 20,000 people may be employed directly or indirectly during construction and operation. Through a new High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission across the Mediterranean seabed to the Italian mainland, the energy could be exported to Europe.

Same idea, two different scenes

Is there a cacophony between the partners Dii and DESERTEC Foundation, or even competition between the projects? The Foundation doesn’t see a conflict and argues that spreading the idea cannot be wrong; and the certification of the Tunisian project was based on the results of independent experts with a strong focus on socio-economic factors such as the local content. At Dii in Munich, Germany, however, one was at least “surprised” about the step taken by the Foundation and doesn’t know the criteria applied by the Foundation to certify the “TuNur” project. So there seems to be a need to talk internally between Dii and its shareholder, the Foundation, which in turn was initiator of the Industrial Initiative.

It is clear that the DESERTEC Foundation is not directly involved in the planning and enabling of power plants and thus has a different mission, which it spreads also to other desert regions in the world. Furthermore, its focus is more on education and socio-economic factors surrounding the Desertec idea. However, numbers promoted such as the 20,000 jobs, which are in for Tunisians with TuNur will not be forgotten in this region, and people there will not make a difference between Dii and the Foundation once these jobs will not be created. Whether it is better to diversify or to focus all efforts on one project shall be left to two organizations.

Written by Andreas Breyer, Contributing Editor, Germany, Solar Novus Today