Sahara-Solarstrom für Europa? - Projekt in Tunesien soll 2016 liefern

[Neues-Deutschland] Im Wüstensand von Tunesien soll ab 2016 in großem Maßstab Solarstrom für Westeuropa erzeugt und über eine 700 km lange Höchstspannungsleitung durch das Mittelmeer nach Italien gelangen.
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Sahara wind and sun to power EU homes
[EU-observer] BRUSSELS - This year, somewhere in Morocco, work will begin on the construction of what is to become a vast network of solar and wind energy farms all around the Sahara desert to provide 15 percent of Europe's electricity supply by 2050.

Oettinger criticised the project as being "colonial", according to the parliament's press service. Africans have not been properly consulted, he is reported as having said.

Other critics include the late Hermann Scheer, long-time member of the German Bundestag and renewable energy advocate.

"The Desertec project is a fata morgana," he wrote in a press release after the launch of the project in 2009. "The initiators know: There is no prospect of success."

Transporting electricity from Africa to Europe is just too expensive, he argued. It would be cheaper to generate the electricity within the EU.

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