Germany`s E.On Says $ 563 billion African Solar Plan Needs EU Backing

June 28 (Bloomberg) -- A plan to build solar plants in the Sahara desert capable of meeting 15 percent of the European Union’s power needs by 2050 will require help from lawmakers, said Wulf Bernotat, chief executive officer of E.ON AG.

“Its like the famous American man to the moon project,” the head of Germany’s largest utility said in a Bloomberg Television interview in eastern England on June 24. “It’s a vision and requires a lot of determination and political will to make it happen.”

Europe is seeking to diversify energy supplies to cut emissions of gases blamed for global warming and reduce dependence on fuel from Russia and the Middle East. E.ON has joined up with Siemens AG, Deutsche Bank AG and Munich Re to develop solar plants in a 400 billion-euro ($563 billion) project stretching across the North African desert.

The European Commission could play a “very important role” in coordinating efforts between industry and national governments involved in the so-called Desertec project, Bernotat said, without being more specific.

High-voltage cables will be needed to move the power from the sparsely populated Sahara under the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, which already is struggling to accommodate increasing power supply from the sun and wind with existing electricity- transmission grids.

Siemens and partners will install solar thermal systems, which heat a fluid by concentrating the sun’s rays onto a tube. The liquid then produces steam that turns turbines.

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Let´s do it, if it´s paying...