Algeria plans solar power cable to Germany-paper

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL14410372.html

Algeria plans solar power cable to Germany-paper

Wed 14 Nov 2007, 11:15 GMT

ALGIERS, Nov 14 (Reuters) - An Algerian company is planning to build a power cable to Germany to export solar-generated electricity from the Sahara, a state-owned newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Tewfik Hasni, chief executive of New Energy Algeria (NEAL), said the 3,000 km (1,875 mile) cable would be laid from the Algerian town of Adrar to the German city of Aachen under a project provisionally entitled "Clean Power From The Desert", El Moudhaid daily reported.

He made the remarks at an Algerian-German business meeting held to coincide with a visit to the north African country this week by German President Horst Koehler, the paper said.

The cable's route would take it across the Mediterranean to the island of Sardinia, mainland Italy, Switzerland and Germany.

The project would be carried out in partnership with a consortium of investors including Algerian state energy giant Sonatrach, which is a shareholder in NEAL, and would depend on final approval from both governments, he said.

NEAL, the main vehicle for OPEC member Algeria's alternative energy strategy, is owned 45 percent by Sonatrach, 45 percent by gas utility Sonelgaz and 10 percent by private agro-industrial firm Semouleries Industrielles de la Mitidja.

Africa's second-largest country, Algeria is 4-1/2 times the size of France and most of its 33 million population live on the northern coastal strip. Its desert south is baked by the sun.

...

[Nihil]

1. An 1875 mile power cable?

:wow:

Does November 14th in Algeria have a similar meaning to April 1st elsewhere?

> The cable's route would take it across the Mediterranean to the island
> of Sardinia, mainland Italy, Switzerland and Germany.

Maybe Reuters mistranslated "route" and what they mean to do is pipe power
to the nearest part of the European grid?

:shrug: