Morocco has been chosen as the first location for a German-led, €400bn (US$550.9bn) project to build a vast network of solar and windfarms across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to provide 15% of Europe’s electricity supply by 2050.
The alternative energy plans were announced at a conference in Cairo on Wednesday; Morocco is the chosen location for the first project, which will be a solar farm.
According to a report in the UK Guardian, the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii) will kick off the first phase of the project with a 500 MW solar farm whose construction is scheduled to begin next year. The desert city of Ouarzazate is the likely location of the farm.
“It’s all systems go in Morocco. We have secured the support of politicians and investors”, said Paul van Son, Dii’s CEO. Dii will disclose the details of the first stage of the 150-Megawatt project at the start of 2012. Also in 2012 the organization will publish its “EUMENA 2050”, providing guidelines on restructuring the energy industry in the Arab nations and Europe based on renewable sources of energy.
It’s not all unfettered, brave-new-world optimism, though. Still according to the Guardian report, Germanwatch, an NGO that monitors German developments, is concerned as to whether local people will benefit from the scheme while Greenpeace Germany said it will follow the project carefully to make sure European companies to do get their hands on local resources.
Dii says any accusations of neo-colonialism are unjust. It said MENA nations themselves specify the condition of the collaboration. “It’s a “win-win” situation for industries in the region and Europe. It is a matter of working together on the same levelâ€, it said.
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