Greece, North Africa Promote Their Solar Projects
Competing solar projects are vying to supply Germany’s renewable desires, each one trying to push the other into the shade.
If you listen to solar advocates in Europe, the upheavals on this side of the globe — revolutions in North Africa, debt misery in Greece — have only brightened the prospects for solar power. German plans to phase out nuclear power have put at least one large nation in the market for new sources of power, and two would-be providers have sworn that global crises won’t hurt their ambitions. On the contrary — they’ll help! (Just watch out for those other solar salesmen.)
First there’s Greece. Germany’s perennial project to both aid Greece and save the euro might include a deal to buy solar energy from Athens. “Greece has a much higher number of sun hours per year than in Germany,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble explained in August, “and they could export electricity to us.”
The plan crystallized this month after Greek Prime Minister Georges Papandreou met German leaders to discuss ways to spark a Greek recovery. A proposed investment project called “Helios” might create 30,000 to 60,000 jobs in Greece, which badly needs them, and ensure a small stream of electricity for the Germans, who badly need renewable energy.
“We can supply the Germans with 10,000 to 15,000 megawatts,” Papandreou said after the meeting.
By the way, he added, “There was a [solar] project in the Sahara, but it is in jeopardy because of the political turmoil” in North Africa.This is where it gets funny, because advocates for the North Africa plan — Desertec — will tell you no such thing. Desertec is an ambitious project to install reflective solar heaters in the Sahara. Steam-turbine plants in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt will generate some energy for domestic use but send the rest to Europe via a trans-Mediterranean grid…