Farming light to power tomorrow's world

A €40

0 billion scheme to provide 15 per cent of Europe's energy via Saharan solar power by 2050 has officially been launched.

Last month industrialist and investors from 14 companies met in Munich to formally found the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII).

The plan is to pool resources and expertise to outfit north Africa with major renewable energy generation plants, making it a future powerhouse for the region and for Europe.

Eventually, the shareholders, including Deutsche Bank and Siemens, will compete commercially with each other, but now they are working together, to try and create the market for the scheme.

The scheme has been developed to this point by the Desertec Foundation, which has been funded by Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan and the German Association for the Club of Rome.

'We have one really crucial ally, and that is climate change,' Friedrich Fuhr, co-founder and director of the Desertec Foundation, told inthenews.co.uk.

'We are promoting one of the really rare global solutions that are on the market right now, where we actually can do something about it.'

The DII has more allies than just climate change – there is also widespread European support for the scheme.

Professor Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the European Energy Agency (EEA), said: 'Keeping climate change within manageable limits will require us to change fundamentally the way we use resources.

'I am therefore greatly encouraged to see initiatives such as Desertec, which brings together 14 firms in an unprecedented partnership, offering the promise of clean, secure energy and green jobs.'

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) also welcomed the scheme, saying it would 'keep a watching eye on its progress'.

Algons Benzinger, an energy sector press officer for DII-member Siemens, said the project was not a pipedream.

'When we look at it we have the technology to create the power in the desert,' he said. 'I think that it is possible.'

Cost is traditionally a problem faced by new energy initiatives, but Mr Fuhr believes this need not be a barrier once the company builds momentum.

'We can only bring the cost down by mass production, and mass production has to start - the sooner the better,' he said.

'What we want to do is to speed up the process. Afterwards our DII partners will be in competition, because they will be competitors. But in this joint effort we are now all partners because we want to create the market.'

When asked why he decided to play a part in the formation of the DII, Mr Fuhr told inthenews.co.uk it was for his children. 'I wanted to be able to answer their questions [about the effects of climate change], so I needed to do something.'

But the initiative does face certain problems, as New Scientist journalist Fred Pearce pointed out.

'It's now widely known that concentrated solar thermal power projects like Desertec need lots of water,' he told inthenews.co.uk.

'That's tough when you are in the desert. In the US, regulators are already saying that water supplies will limit the harvesting of solar energy in places like the Mojave desert.

'But so far I can see little sign that the Desertec enthusiasts have addressed this issue. It's not necessarily a deal-breaker. There is water under parts of the Sahara. But it is a big gap in current plans.'

Warning energy bills could rise by 60%

Gas and electricity bills could increase by more than 60 per cent by 2016, the energy watchdog Ofgem has warned.

The regulator today said domestic energy bills could increase by between 14 per cent and 25 per cent by 2020 – with spikes of up to 60 per cent in the meantime.

Ofgem has put forward four scenarios for the future of secure UK energy supplies – claiming up to £200 billion is needed to be invested.

The upshot of this investment is that customers could face price rises.

Ofgem chief executive Alistair Buchanan said: 'Early action can avoid hasty and expensive measures later.

'Our scenarios suggest that Britain faces a tough challenge in maintaining secure supplies whilst at the same time meeting its climate change targets.

'However, there is still time to act.'

The report claims if the economy recovers rapidly and there is significant investment in green technology, energy bills could rise 23 per cent by 2020 – with greater electricity demand as more use of electric cars and heat pumps.

If green stimulus packages from governments around the world come, bills will rise 14 per cent.

A further scenario is that countries focus on energy security over environment targets and competition for pushes up energy prices – could push gas and electricity prices up by 60 per cent by 2016 before falling back.

Finally a longer recession could lower investment, leading to greater dependence on imported gas – leading to prices rising by 22 per cent.

Calls grow for Zimbabwean blood diamond ban

By Nqobani Ndlovu.

World diamond manufacturers say they will support a ban on trade with Zimbabwe unless it demilitarises its diamond fields.

Zimbabwe's army has defied calls by the Kimberly Process (KP) – which works to end the sale of blood diamonds - to vacate the diamond fields where security forces are accused of torture, killings and human rights abuses against civilians.

The KP team that was launched in 2003 to stop the flow of conflict diamonds into the mainstream market also called for Zimbabwe's diamond sales to be halted for six months following its visit to the country in June this year.

The International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) is backing the KP team and World Diamond Council (WDC) for Zimbabwe's suspension until the government met the standards of legal diamond trade.

'IDMA wishes to emphasise its unequivocal support for the WDC's position that if the Kimberley Process certification scheme (KPCS) review commission's recommendations are not implemented and addressed in an acceptable timeline, a call for the suspension of Zimbabwe from the KPCS is the only route to follow,' said the body's president, Moti Ganz, in a statement.

The WDC, also known as the International Diamond Council, is made up of representatives of diamond manufacturing and trading companies while the IDMA represents manufacturers.

The government seized the Chiadzwa diamond field in eastern Zimbabwe from British-based Africa Resources Limited in 2007, allowed unlicensed diggers to overrun it and in November 2008 drive them off in a military crackdown.

Human rights organisations have detailed how in 2008 security forces used live ammunition and teargas into the diamond fields resulting in the death of over 200 civilians – a charge the government denies.

On Tuesday, Zimbabwe's mines minister, Obert Mpofu said the government is demanding 50 per cent of all investments in the country's diamond wealth.

'With diamonds, we want 50-50 shareholding in joint ventures with investors,' Mr Mpofu was quoted by the state-controlled Herald newspaper as telling a parliamentary committee on mining. 'That's not negotiable.'

Mr Mpofu said the government was drafting legislation to put its stake into law.

Isle of Wight protest turbine firm sees profits fall

Vestas, the energy firm hit by protests in the UK over job cuts, has posted lower-than-expected quarterly profits.

Earnings before interest and tax in June to April were €78 million (£70 million), down from €92 million (£79 million) in the corresponding period in 2008.

The Danish firm has been hit by job cuts across its facilities and a drop in orders.

The most high profile protest at the losses came on the Isle of Wight, where hundreds of sacked workers refused to leave the factory they worked in.

In Denmark 1,142 jobs were lost and 12 per cent fewer wind turbines shipped during the last quarter.

But Vestas said it still expected to finish the year with sales of €7.2 billion (£6.2 billion) and an operating profit margin of up to 13 per cent.

'In spite of the weak order intake since the onset of the credit crisis, Vestas retains its forecast for 2009,' a statement said.