A new dawn for Saharan solar power?

Plans are afoot to harness North African solar power to supply Europe, despite previous ill-fated efforts

When the Desertec project crashed and burned, it seemed it was too soon to harness the Sahara desert's solar power to supply Europe's energy needs. But four years on, efforts are being made to rekindle the concept, albeit on a more modest scale. TuNur is a small privately-owned company, based in the UK and backed by Tunisian and Maltese investors. It has plans to develop a concentrated solar power (CSP) project in the Tunisian desert which, if fully developed, could supply around 4.5 gigawatts of power to Europe and Tunisia. The company took a step towards realising the project with a recent request to the Tunisian energy ministry for authorisation. Kevin Sara, TuNur's chief executive, envis