According to a news report recently published in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, European nations are planning to harvest the sun in the Sahara desert in Africa to “provide clean electricity for the whole of Europe” but there is no mention of how such a development will also benefit Africa.
“Vast farms of solar panels in the Sahara desert could provide clean electricity for the whole of Europe, according to EU scientists working on a plan to pool the region’s renewable energy,” reports the newspaper.
As the world continues to investigate energy sources that are environmentally friendly, there is a need for developed countries to actively promote both technology and skills transfer to poorer nations. The fact is the problem of climate change is a sum of its parts. If one part of the world lacks appropriate solutions, the problem will still come back to haunt even those countries that have access to perceived technological solutions.
The report states that 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle Eastern deserts can potentially provide all of Europe’s energy needs because the sunlight in this area is more intense. Therefore solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in that area could generate up to three times the electricity compared with similar panels in northern Europe.
“Harnessing the power of the desert sun is at the centre of ambitious scheme to build a €45bn (£35.7bn) European supergrid that would allow countries across the continent to share electricity from abundant green sources such as wind energy in the UK and Denmark and geothermal energy from Iceland and Italy,” reports the Guardian newspaper.
While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the move to provide cleaner energy, it is essential that such an ambitious initiative is sustainable and beneficial to both Europe and Africa.
To harvest solar power in Africa without ensuring that the continent also has access to such energies is not a sufficient solution to the energy problem facing the world.
“Assuming it’s cost-effective, a large scale renewable energy grid is just the kind of innovation we need if we’re going to beat climate change. Europe needs to become a zero-carbon society as soon as possible, and that will only happen with bold new ideas like this one. Tinkering with 20th-century technologies like coal and nuclear simply isn’t going to get us there,” the newspaper quoted Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist as welcoming the proposals.
Indeed Europe needs to become a zero-carbon society but so does Africa, and given Europe’s self-interested historical intervention in Africa, it has a responsibility to assist the continent.
In my opinion, a clean energy approach that does not take improving Africa’s capacity to become energy efficient and only promotes Europe’s self interest reeks of a neo-colonial project to suck Africa of its natural resources.
Photo Credit: 4ever30something on Flick-r under a Creative Common License
Good article. Although it seems like a noble idea,as the author says, Africa needs to benefit from this development. Without giving back something to Africa, this project will be viewed as another form of European colonialism.
But anyway, we need these developed countries which have caused a lot of damage to our planet to start implementing policies that can drastically reduce carbon content in the atmosphere. Thanks for sharing!
If Europe is to use a natural resource from Africa, it surely should think of benefiting the source of the raw material as well; it is only fair.at the end of the day such would make the whole world a better place.I agree with the post,Africa also would want to become a zero carbon society.
“there is no mention of how such a development will also benefit Africa”
Perhaps you could remind me when last did Europe do something of benefit for Africa..!
@ Michelle, actually as far as I can tell, China is doing a far better job of benefitting the source of much of its raw material (Africa) than Europe ever did.
something is terribly wrong if europe can seriously consider such a huge (and worthy) undertaking without serious benefit to the host continent!!??!! especially because there are people who still have NO energy in Africa – let alone clean energy!
if they can devise a plan that includes benefit for both africa & europe, i think it is an awesome thing and the US ought to take notes.
I don’t disagree with your point, but I’ve been studying this stuff for some years now and really do struggle to find any benefit we have brought to Africa.
Ahh..White guilt never ceases to amaze me. Please name one successful country where the population is overwhelmingly from Sub Saharan African descent? Every country in the world could give it’s entire GDP to 47 some odd African countries and they still would be the corrupt cesspools they are today. Stop guilt trips please!
What are you people talking about? Do you honestly believe european companys – this is going to be a privately financed project – would be willing to spend dozens of billions of € in Africa without political stability and therefore obvious benefits for the host countries? The idea to harvest the suns energy in the sahara is such a big project, that it just doesn’t make much sense unless you maximize your market. And this is not the EU, but foremost the north-african countries. Not just for electricity, but also for desalination. It’s a question of economies of scale. Plus: You have obviously forgotten that the EU is the global forerunner in the trading of emission rights. Therefore it is even more profitable to invest in clean energy in africa.
It doesn’t take a genius to work this one out, Europe only needs 0.3% of the Sahara’s sun according to the Article, well we build and finance 0.5% and let Africa have the spare capacity. There not exactly let us going to build it for free are they…
But it won’t be completed in the near future so if employed they’d steadily see an increase and not just get total power to the whole continent as some would assume.
Plus for the people complaining about Europeans (we English)gave back the colonial countries and they still blame us white men when no one has done much bar start civil wars.. What can we do they don’t want us there.
I think this project is a great idea. 450Bn is a lot of money; then again if you think that investment could provide all power for the whole EU, then you are talking about less than 25e per person per year for 50 years for construction.
And no I don’t think developing another country’s infrastructure for them (which by the way will be done with EU money if the Mediterranean Union takes shape) is ‘robbing them of their resources’. The massive investments, developments to infrastructure, increased and improved trade relations, and training of an able workforce should bring massive benefits to Africa. Solar energy on this scale also makes the access to solar energy dirt cheap for African countries. They just need to connect it to their grid and they can become zero-carbon as well. I don’t think another wales here or there will make the difference.