By Jason Deign

Anyone who has been through a messy breakup will be familiar with the routine. First, great hopes and dreams together. Then a gradual drifting apart. And finally, a public spat and a parting of the ways. That pretty much describes the Desertec Foundation and Dii love affair.

The Desertec Foundation was established in January 2009 as a non-profit, non-government organisation (NGO) formed by scientists, politicians and economists with a view to establishing an energy exchange system between Europe and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The Foundation’s aim is to foster the creation of power generation capacity in MENA with a view to exporting it to Europe. The plan, in which CSP plays a crucial role, would bring low-carbon energy security to Europe and prosperity and job creation to MENA.

To bring it to fruition, however, would require a significant participation from industry.

To this end, October 2009 saw the creation of a limited liability company called Dii (for ‘Desertec industrial initiative’) which has since grown to represent a consortium of 55 companies and institutions, including the Fraunhofer and Max-Planck research institutes.

“Desertec Foundation is the initiator, the inventor, the shepherd of the concept,” explains the Foundation’s director and co-founder, Dr Thiemo Gropp. “It is a civil society-driven organisation, globally active.”

In the beginning, the two bodies had a close relationship. The Foundation was responsible for promoting the Desertec concept, ultimately getting buy-in for similar initiatives in America (with the Atacama Desert as a focus) and Asia.

Meanwhile Dii has worked towards getting concrete projects off the ground in MENA, not least to satisfy the commercial imperatives of its corporate members. It was an arrangement that seemed to suit both parties, for a while at least.

Lack of progress

But in recent times cracks have started to appear in the relationship. Because it is so dependent on outside influences, from political stability in MENA to market conditions in Europe, Desertec has always been susceptible to accusations of a lack of progress towards its stated goals.

Such accusations have gained credence with the departure of important industrial partners such as Siemens and Bosch, and Spain’s refusal to sign up to an interconnector with Morocco.

All of which has heightened the need for Desertec’s backers to stick to their guns, albeit while acknowledging the challenges associated with their vision.

Recently, though, Dii appeared to waver from the party line, with reports stating that maybe the intention behind Desertec was not to sell MENA power to Europe after all. Dii later denied this change of tack.

However, by then the comments, which were published in the German press and had caught the Foundation unawares, had in the Foundation’s eyes cemented the view that Desertec was in disarray, irreparably damaging the association between the two organisations.

On July 1, the Foundation unilaterally announced it was terminating its membership of Dii, citing irresolvable disputes between the entities, disagreements over managerial style and reluctance to be drawn into negative publicity regarding the ‘management crisis’ at the consortium.

“They knew we were discussing this internally for more than six months, but the final decision was taken in a situation where there was this dispute going through the ceiling, and we reacted very fast,” says Gropp.

Good governance

“It’s always a big opportunity and a challenge to combine the interests of an NGO with the interests of a large group of industrial shareholders. It only works if you have a good governance within the collaboration between the two parties. This is now a touchy situation.”

Dii, which will be presenting at the CSP Today summit in Seville this November, reacted to the Foundation’s withdrawal with a brief statement on its web site. “The Desertec Foundation has announced its exit from Dii in order to be able to act neutral in its role as NGO,” it said.

“Dii respects that decision. This development has no impact on Dii’s goals, strategy or activities. We will continue to work towards the creation of a market for desert power in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.”

Speaking to CSP Today, however, Dii head of communications Klaus Schmidtke lamented the breakdown in communication between the two parties, noting that both had presented at a joint meeting shortly before the Foundation’s withdrawal was announced.

“The only thing that happened was there was a misleading headline in an article,” he says. “This is not a reason to cancel the relationship.”

The spat comes at a time when there is clear and growing appetite for CSP in MENA and both organisations have confirmed their ongoing commitment to the Desertec vision.

With emerging markets still able to default to lower-cost solar PV for their energy needs, though, it will be important for CSP to show one of its grandest schemes is viable even though the plan’s protagonists have fallen out.

To respond to this article, please write to Jason Deign

Or contact the editor, Jennifer Muirhead