Siemens, Bosch, and Spain: Just Say No to Desertec

The ambitious plan to build huge solar power plants in North Africa to feed into the European power grid, has suffered some significant setbacks recently. Industrial giants Siemens and Bosch, as well as the government of Spain, are indicating that they are no longer interested in the expensive boondoggle.

An ambitious plan to provide 15% of Europe's power needs from solar plants in North Africa has run into trouble.

The Desertec initiative hoped to deliver electricity from a network of renewable energy sources to Europe via cables under the sea.

But in recent weeks, two big industrial backers have pulled out. And the Spanish government has baulked at signing an agreement to build solar power plants in Morocco.

...According to Dr Daniel Ayuk Mbi Egbe, a professor at the University of Linz in Austria and an expert on African solar resources, this is not good news.

"Siemens and Bosch are very big companies," he told BBC News, "if they don't want to support this initiative it is going to be difficult for Desertec.

...Prof Peter Droege is the head of Eurosolar, the European association for renewable energy: ... "I think it is struggling to find a reason to continue - It is clear it's lost its original purpose, it is looking for a new direction," he commented..._BBC

Grand and exorbitant schemes of this type do hold a certain appeal -- until one begins to look more closely at the details. Eventually it will dawn on almost everyone that such schemes are impractical, "feel-good" scams, run for the benefit of developers and administrators of the projects themselves. In the end, taxpayers always lose when forced to pay for intermittent unreliable sources of energy.