Gulf oil spill speeds up Solar from Sahara for Europe 2015

Europe will import its first solar-generated electricity from North Africa within the next five years, European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in an interview .GULF OIL SPILL SPEEDS UP SOLAR

Desertec $500 bn CSP solar power

"I think some models starting in the next 5 years will bring some hundreds of megawatts to the European market," Oettinger told Reuters after a meeting with energy ministers from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

He said those initial volumes would come from small pilot projects, but the amount of electricity would go up into the thousands of megawatts as projects including the 400 billion euro ($495 billion) Desertec solar scheme come on stream.

Inter-connector cables North Africa to Europe

The EU is backing the construction of new electricity cables, known as inter-connectors, under the Mediterranean Sea to carry this renewable energy from North Africa to Europe.

The Desertec consortium includes major firms such as

Siemens, RWE and Deutsche Bank.

source: reuters.com

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