So far it remains an initiative that’s yet to graduate to full blown project status. However, even in these early days Desertec, formerly known as the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII), knows a good PR yarn.
On Wednesday DII’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Van Son told a group of foreign reporters (including a Reuters journalist) that over the next month up to five new companies from Morocco, Tunisia, Spain, France and Italy would join DII.
That’s all Van Son said and we’re only left guessing who these new DII members are.
So far project backer are mostly German and Van Son’s remarks might be a way to diffuse lingering criticism that Desertec needs more foreign participants.
Current backers include reinsurance giant Munich Re, Deutsche Bank, E.O, HSH Nordbank, MAN Solar Millennium, M+W Zander, RWE, Schott Solar and Siemens.
So, to recap, including today’s news, this is what we know so far about Desertec. It’s a 40-year initiative set to cost 400 billion euro ($549 billion) to fully develop. The massive Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) power plants it will use could pipe electricity to Europe as early as 2015; The CSP plants will be deployed in the torrid Sahara in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia
Over the next three years Desertec plans to develop demonstration projects and work to establish a legal framework to regulate the import and export of renewable energy, reports Reuters.