North Africa: Desertec disappears into the sand

The much-vaunted Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii) has made many claims since its foundation in 2009, initially as a predominantly German conglomerate of major industrial companies whose big idea was to harness the world-scale solarity of the Sahara and wider Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region to generate power for export into the European Union. Even as more international companies signed up, it has been clear for years that Dii was unable to deliver on its biggest promises; nor did its consortium nature make for easy management or transparent bidding.