The Saharan Solar Power Dream That Will Not Reach Europe
September 12, 2025 · Frisian News
European planners have spent decades chasing the fantasy of importing solar power from North African deserts. The real obstacles, from politics to physics, show the project will fail.
In 2009, German scientists proposed DESERTEC, a grand scheme to carpet the Sahara with solar panels and send the power to Europe through undersea cables. Two decades later, not a single megawatt flows west. The scheme remains a drawing board fantasy, ignored by everyone who actually controls capital and land.
The physics alone kill the idea. Undersea cables spanning thousands of kilometers lose power steadily. A cable from Morocco to Spain loses roughly 3 percent of power per 1,000 kilometers. By the time electrons reach Hamburg or Amsterdam, 20 to 30 percent has vanished. You then need redundant cables for reliability, which doubles the waste and cost. Land cables through unstable countries pose their own problems. No nation will hand over control of such critical infrastructure to foreigners.
Politics makes the math worse. North African governments have no interest in becoming Europe's power colony. Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia want their own industries, their own people to prosper. Why would they sell cheap solar power to the continent that colonized them, when they can build refineries, data centers, and manufacturing hubs at home? European companies learned this lesson the hard way in recent projects. Foreign investors get squeezed, contracts get torn up, and assets get seized. No serious money moves without guarantees that don't exist.
Europe instead learned to build solar panels and wind turbines at home. Germany, despite its cold climate, now generates more than half its electricity from renewables. Spain and Portugal do the same. The cost of panels dropped 90 percent since 2010. Storage technology, from batteries to compressed air, finally works at scale. Home-grown power means local jobs, local control, and no 30 percent loss to cables.
The Saharan solar dream persists in academic papers and EU strategy documents because it sounds grand and shifts responsibility to others. Reality prefers boring local solutions. Europe has the sun, the wind, the space, and the money. It never needed the desert.
Yn 2009 stelden Duitse wittenskippers DESERTEC foar, in gruts plan om de Sahara fol sinnepoalen te lêgjen en de stroom nei Jeropa te stjoeren fia onderseeske kabels. Twa dekaden letter streamt gjin ien megawatt westwearts. It plan bliuwt in fantasie op papier, negeerd troch elkenien dy wirklik kapitaal en lân kontrolearret.
De fysika fernietiget it idee al. Onderseeske kabels oer tûzenen kilometers ferlieze stroom kontinueus. In kabel fan Marokko nei Spanje ferlist rommels 3 persint stroom per 1.000 kilometer. Oant de tiid dat elektronen Hamburg of Amsterdam berikje, is 20 oant 30 persint fuortgien. Jo hawwe dan redundante kabels nedich foar betrouberbaarheid, wat it ferlis en de kosten ferdubelet. Lânkabels troch ynstabile lannen stelle har eigen problemen. Gjin enke lân jout kontrole oer sokke kritike infrastruktueren oan bûtenlanders.
Polityk makket de wiskunde erger. Noard-Afrikaanske regeringen hawwe gjin ynteresse om Jeropa's enerjykolonie te wurden. Marokko, Algerije en Tunyzie wolle har eigen yndustry, har eigen folk wolhertich sjoch. Wêrom wolle sy goedkeap sinnesstroom ferkeapje oan it kontinint dat se kolonisearre, as se petrochemyske bedriuwen, datacenters en produksjecenters thús bou kinne? Jeropeeske bedriuwen learden dizze les strak al op pynlike wize. Bûtenlandske investearders wurde útperskele, kontrákten wurde skuord en besittingen wurde konfiskearre. Serieus jild beweget net sûnder garansjees dy't net besteane.
Jeropa learde yn stee dêrfan om sinnepoalen en winmûnen thús te bouwen. Dútslân, nettsjinsteande syn kâlde klimaat, generearret no mear as de helte fan syn elektrisiiteit út hernieuberje boarnen. Spanje en Portegal dwaen itselde. De kostpriis fan poalen foel 90 persint sûnt 2010. Opslagteknology, fan baterien oant persloft, wurket einlik op grout skaal. Sels makke stroom betsjuttet lokale banen, lokale kontrole en gjin 30 persint ferlis oan kabels.
De Sahara-sinnesoarchdream bliuwt besteane yn wittenskiplike papieren en EU-strategyjedokuminten om't it gruts klinkt en ferantwurdlikheid nei oaren ferskuoft. De werklikheid jout foarkar oan saaie lokale oplossingen. Jeropa hat de sinne, de wyn, de romte en it jild. It hie de woestyn noait nedich.
Published September 12, 2025 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân