World Security Network reporting from Munich, Germany, August 06, 2010


Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,



"DESERTEC: a project to install solar power plants in the Middle East and Northern African desert and export the energy produced to provide some of Europe's Electricity"

Energy Security for Europe has become a topic of growing concerns.

On June 21, 2010 the Russian government decided to cut the gas supply to Belarus. During the Ukraine gas crisis in 2006, Europe suffered from sudden gas scarcity because of similar shortages. Although this time there were no serious consequences for gas delivery to Western European states, the urgent need for diversification and stabilization of the European energy supply became apparent once more.

In addition to political factors, the natural scarcity of fossil fuels like Russian gas or Middle Eastern oil is a driver of change for the European Energy Security Strategy. An EU Green Paper and the trans-European energy network strategy both contain suggestions for an intelligent combination of energy sources and distribution for the next thirty years. Shortages in gas delivery will be reduced by pipeline projects like Nabucco, providing Europe with Caspian Sea gas without crossing Russian territory, or NordStream, a direct gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that avoids problematic transit states.

Despite these actions to reduce gas delivery risks, the general problem of energy diversification requires exploitation of alternative energy sources. Without this, European states will not be able to reduce their dependency on dwindling fossil fuel resources. Energy security strategies require a shift in power generation, and the worldwide climate change debate adds pressure to the issue.

Europe's challenge today is to develop the right mixture of energy sources for the next 30 to 40 years, the period most experts believe necessary to fully develop and establish comprehensive alternative energy production.

Facing that challenge, German and French companies have discovered something originally developed by the Club of Rome: DESERTEC, a project to install solar power plants in the Middle Eastern and Northern African deserts and export the energy produced to provide some of Europe's Electricity