It’s worth adding that the solar thermal power technology is already in operation (California, Nevada and Spain have systems linked to the grid producing hundreds of MW; other countries like Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and Australia are building plants). It is very simple in concept – concentrate heat from sunshine, collect the heat, create steam and spin turbines. Not an unproven concept like some proposed solutions, eg “4th generation nuclear”.

Plants are quick to build, leave no toxic waste, make use of an inexhaustible fuel and each square km of desert can generate over 200 GWh of electricity per year. An area 400 x 400 km – a tiny fraction of the N. African desert – covered with solar thermal plants could supply all of the electricity currently used in the EU.

And, the great advantage of solar thermal power compared with the better known photo-voltaic technology, is that its output can be stored in the form of heat, then converted to electricity when needed. The operational plant in Spain has 50 minutes of storage to ensure power is continuous through cloudy periods. Larger heat stores are being developed so that solar thermal power plants will be able to offer 24 hour operation, ie all through the night.

More details of the DESERTEC concepts are at http://www.desertec.org