New company forms to make Desertec solar plan a reality

The plan to cover North Africa with solar panels now has a company with a name to back it up: DII GmbH.

Announced earlier this year, the Desertec initiative is a joint venture of ABB, Abengoa Solar, Cevital, the Desertec Foundation, Deutsche Bank, E.ON, HSH Nordbank, MAN Solar Millennium, Munich Re, M+W Zander, RWE, Schott Solar and Siemens. Representatives from those founding organisations came together today in Munich to sign the articles of association for DII, a limited liability company that aims to make Desertec a reality.

The project’s long-term goal is to satisfy a substantial part of the energy needs of host countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), as well as to meet up to 15 per cent of Europe’s electricity demand by 2050.

“Now the time has come to turn this vision into reality,” said Paul van Son, the newly appointed CEO of DII. “That implies intensive cooperation with many parties and cultures to create a sound basis for feasible investments into renewable energy technologies and interconnected grids.”

Added Torsten Jeworrek, a member of the board of Munich Re on behalf of the DII founding members: “The question is not whether we should do something, but how we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere and how this goal can be achieved in an intelligent manner, which results in a win-win situation for both the environment and the economy. With regard to the important UN climate summit in Copenhagen, this private-sector initiative demonstrates how business potentials can be aligned with sustainability goals.”

International climate negotiators hope to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol when they meet in Copenhagen this December.