Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Co-operation (TREC) has come up with a technologically feasible system of capturing solar energy at the place where it’s most abundant, then transporting the electricity back to Europe.

Solar energy is a form of renewable energy which is cheap, and unlike fossil fuels, does not have the risk of running out anytime soon. Unfortunately as most of Europe does not bathe in sunshine for large parts of the year, usage of solar energy is feasible only during summertime. Also, the levels of solar radiation in most of Europe can be low, when averaged over a time period of one year. You can easily power the lighting of a small cottage but electrifying a whole building is infeasible.

Fortunately, geographically quite near to Europe there are places with abundant sunshine year round, for example areas of Sahara desert, North Africa and Middle East. Thus it would make sense to somehow create electricity from solar energy there and then transport it to Europe. The people of the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Co-operation (TREC) have come up with such a system that is technologically feasible and does not cost astronomical amounts of money either.

Their beautiful idea (in a nutshell) is to setup solar energy collector and conversion sites to North Africa and the Middle East, then connect the electrical networks to Europe and let the electricity flow. Transporting the electricity to long distances is not a problem when using High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines – the article mentions an overall loss of 10-15% during transport to Europe.

Aside from Europe and the partnering countries getting solar electricity, an interesting part of the idea is that it can be done today with today’s technology. There is no need for new or exotic technology, just the political willpower to set things in motion.

Read more at the TREC site or the Wikipedia article.