"Let There be Light" and DESERTEC
Then God said, 'Let there be light," and there was light. God saw how good the light was. As the planet's climate grows more erratic and oil prices rise and fall bringing insecurity for non-oil nations and often war and autocratic governments within oil nations, people may finally be ready to go back to the beginning to rethink their energy sources. A huge solar project, DESTERTEC (www.desertec.org), is in the works as a joint effort between a group of European companies and the DESERTEC Foundation to build solar collectors in North Africa to supply 1/3 of Europe's energy needs and those of Morocco as well. The solar energy will heat water into steam which will turn turbines creating energy. This energy be transferred to European nations under the Mediterranean Sea. No small undertaking. It requires big vision and big investment, but the potential for payback is even greater. The elegance of this initiative and that of a similar one for the Sahara Desert is that the s...