Germany’s Munich Re Launches Plans for Huge Solar Power Plants in N. Africa, Mid East
MUNICH, June 16 - One of the world’s leading reinsurers, Munich Re, is spearheading a gigantic plan to commercially develop North Africa’s abundant solar energy in the Sahara desert to supply Germany and Europe with solar electricity.
The €38 billion ($52 billion) group has called a July 13 meeting of some 20 major German companies in Munich to begin laying the groundwork for the “DESERTEC” initiative that’s expected to cost some €400 billion ($553 billion).
The Apollo-size concept was first floated more than a year ago when it was presented to the European parliament in a 60-page White Paper which outlined plans to tap solar power in the sunbelt regions of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (H&FCL Jan. 08).
The new push, reported initially yesterday in Munich’s “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” daily followed by three additional stories today and picked up by the online version of “Spiegel” magazine, is said to involve heavy hitters such as electrical and electronics giant Siemens, Germany’s largest bank Deutsche Bank, and the energy companies RWE and Eon, who have all agreed to come to the July 13 meeting. The German federal government, Greenpeace, the Club of Rome and others apparently have signaled their interest and want to cooperate as well, according to these reports.
Torsten Jeworrek, a Munich Re management board member and chairman of the company’s reinsurance committee, told “Sueddeutsche,” “we want to launch the initiative and present concrete action plans in the next two or three years.”
By what looks like absolutely no coincidence at all, Munich Re also issued a press release today announcing a new publication, “Munich Re newables - Our contribution to a low-carbon energy supply." It said it wants to contribute by providing planning certainty “for those investing in new power-plant technologies in the form of innovative insurance solutions,” such as utilizing solar energy in North Africa. “We are therefore commencing a dialogue with visionary thinkers and companies that, like us, are convinced of DESERTEC’s enormous economic, ecological and social potential,” Jeworrek was quoted in the release as saying.
