German engineering giant Siemens - which is also a founding member of the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII), driving an ambitious renewable energy project across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa - claims to already hold all the technology elements necessary to deliver on the ambitious multinational venture.

However, global CEO Peter Loescher told an African audience recently that the project was still in the process of being scoped and that its eventual deployment was, thus, not only likely to be incremental, but could also include projects not initially earmarked as part of the scheme, including other African projects.

The focus at present was on defining the technical and investment scope of the project, as well as on understanding the environmental constraints to its development. This analysis was expected to continue until 2012.

"My own assessment is that Desertec will not be one big project, but that there will be many project opportunities along the way," he elaborated.

Currently envisaged, is a network of mostly solar-harnessing solutions (but also wind, biomass, geothermal and hydropower) sited primarily in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East.

The electricity generated would then be transported through efficient high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission systems to the urban centres of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Theoretically, Desertec could supply up to 15% of Europe's energy needs by 2050, and it is envisaged that the first plants could be built within six years to eight years.

The founding members of the DII (ABB, ABENGOA Solar, Cevital, Desertec Foundation, Deutsche Bank, E.ON, HSH Nordbank, MAN Solar Millennium, Munich RE, M+W Zander, RWE, SCHOTT Solar and Siemens) believe that, once the concept is proved, there is potential to deploy the solution to other desert regions in the US, India, China and Australia, noting that about 90% of the world's population lives within 3 000 km of major deserts.

"This project could serve as a model throughout the [African] continent," Loescher said in a recent address made in Gauteng on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Siemens's founding in South Africa.

"As a technology leader in the solar thermal business, we have the capability to build entire solar farms," he enthused.

The group had bolstered its capacity in this area through the recent $418-million acquisition of Israel's Solel Solar. In fact, Loescher said that, with the acquisition, Siemens could now complete 70% of the value-added engineering required for concentrating solar plants.

But he also emphasised the group's HVDC capabilities, owing to the fact that the technology was seen as critical to ensuring limited energy losses, despite transmission over large distances. It has been estimated that the cost of 20 transmission lines of 5 GW each would be about €45-billion and limiting energy losses would be important to make Desertec competitive. But initially, the project would probably also hinge on the availability of feed-in tariffs.

"But we strongly believe that Siemens has all the elements already in place to really drive and implement the [Desertec] projects," Loescher concluded.