Topic of the Week - Wind Power from the Gobi Desert

The DESERTEC Foundation and the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF) are working together towards an alternative that will bolster Japan's transition to clean, affordable and reliable sources of clean power: a high-voltage direct-current super grid to supply the whole of Asia with
renewable energy.

Today, Japanese Softbank Corp., led by billionaire and JREF founder Masayoshi Son, takes the first step in the implementation of the so-called "Asian Super Grid". By the end of the year, SB Energy Corp., the renewable energy division of Softbank, will identify the site for a wind farm in the Gobi Desert in cooperation with the Mongolian company Newcom LLC.

This first wind farm of up to 300 MW could become operational as early as 2014 -- feasibility studies for three more sites in Mongolian parts of the Gobi are planned. Taken together they could result in desert wind farms with a total capacity of 7,000 megawatts.

Renewable energy resources in remote areas of Asia such as the Gobi desert are abundant. The "Asian Super Grid" would transport these to the population centers of the region by interlinking national electricity grids from Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia and Russia, through low-loss
high-voltage direct current transmission lines.

The DESERTEC Foundation has already conducted an initial feasibility study into possible corridors for transmission lines that will allow the harnessing of the renewable energy potential of the Gobi desert. DESERTEC Foundation Director Dr. Thiemo Gropp sees such a network as an
"important step towards implementation of the DESERTEC Concept in East Asia".


About Desertec:

Humankind is confronted with enormous challenges: global energy demand is climbing rapidly due to population growth and progressing industrialization. At the same time, global CO2 emissions have to be drastically reduced within the next few years in order to prevent runaway climate change. The DESERTEC Concept http://www.desertec.org/?id=204  offers a solution. Sufficient clean power can be generated in the world's deserts to supply humankind with enough electricity on a sustainable basis. DESERTEC is an integrated concept which includes energy security and climate protection as well as drinking water production, socio-economic development, security policy and international cooperation.

*Fast global implementation: *The mission of DESERTEC Foundation
http://www.desertec.org/organization  is the fast global implementation of the DESERTEC Concept. DESERTEC can be implemented worldwide as suitable deserts can be found on all the inhabited continents of the Earth. The key technologies
http://www.desertec.org/concept/technologies for the generation and transmission of clean power from the deserts have already been successfully in use for decades. In order to accelerate the construction of the required facilities and infrastructure, pertinent policy frameworks  allowing for international trade with clean power and providing suitable investment incentives have to be created. The sooner cost reductions are achieved through mass production, the faster clean
power from deserts will become an economic alternative to fossil sources of energy.


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