Product Description
Six hours of sunlight in the deserts of the earth are sufficient to meet humankind’s energy needs for an entire year. Desertec’s ideas show how we could use the deserts of the world to produce clean energy. The technology is there, nothing new has to be invented. Everybody would benefit: an area the size of Bavaria - spread across the deserts of the world – is all that is needed to satisfy global electricity demand.
Many different kinds of renewable energy can play a part: from the blue shimmering photovoltaic panels that make up huge solar power plants to giant wind farms and large thermal solar power installations.
So why don´t we have any Desertec power plants already? This is an exciting story, almost a thriller. It leads us into the Nile Delta in the early 20th Century and into the German Parliament before the First World War.
We will visit the oil wells of the Caspian Sea as well as Chernobyl in Ukraine. A sunny terrace in Hamburg in early spring features in our story, as does the nuclear disaster of Fukushima in Japan.
Along the way, we’ll meet visionaries who were ahead of their time. We will encounter business people who want to do something to address the climate crisis and others who just want to fill their pockets as quickly as they can. Politicians such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will appear on stage. We’ll come across some people who only feign interest in energy questions to get one over on others. And a few who are seriously concerned about climate change.
But the story begins with a guy who had been a big fan of nuclear energy his entire life. Until one day he turned on the radio, took a pen and began to do a few calculations.
Best-selling author Margaret Heckel ("So regiert die Kanzlerin”, “Thus governs Chancellor Merkel”) tells the story of the Desertec idea as an exciting report. Heckel is one of the most prominent political journalists in Germany. Until 2006 she was political editor of "Financial Times Deutschland", then political editor of the quality papers “WELT”, and "Welt am Sonntag". She lives in Potsdam. (www.margaretheckel.de)
„Nobody has come as close to Merkel as Margaret Heckel. A must-read for both fans and opponents of Merkel”, Die Rheinische Post on “So regiert die Kanzlerin”
Table of Contents
Prologue: Five Mirrors in the Desert – or Why Anna Won’t Ever Have to Worry About her Electricity Supply Again
Chapter 1: Chernobyl and the Solar Constant - How the Physicist Gerhard Knies Discovered the Desert’s Potential for Generating Energy
Chapter 2: Well Met – The Prince, the Minister and an Idea that Finds its Way
Chapter 3: Teasing Germany - Nicolas Sarkozy and Solar Power
Chapter 4: Big Industry Makes its Entrance - The World's Largest Reinsurer and an Interview with Surprising Consequences
Chapter 5: Merkel’s Alleged Retaliation – and What Happens if Five Secretaries of State Drop in Unexpectedly
Chapter 6: The No. 1 Solar Engine - and Why it Was Oil Nonetheless that Dominated the 20th Century
Chapter 7: Strawberries from Egypt - and What They Have in Common with Electricity Exports from North Africa
Chapter 8: The Arab Spring - the Freedom Struggles in North Africa and the Energy Revolution
Chapter 9: Where the Energy Comes from - the European Union and the Security of Energy Supply
Epilogue: A Letter from Aunt Petra - and how Anna Goes to Visit her Solar Power Plant
Many different kinds of renewable energy can play a part: from the blue shimmering photovoltaic panels that make up huge solar power plants to giant wind farms and large thermal solar power installations.
So why don´t we have any Desertec power plants already? This is an exciting story, almost a thriller. It leads us into the Nile Delta in the early 20th Century and into the German Parliament before the First World War.
We will visit the oil wells of the Caspian Sea as well as Chernobyl in Ukraine. A sunny terrace in Hamburg in early spring features in our story, as does the nuclear disaster of Fukushima in Japan.
Along the way, we’ll meet visionaries who were ahead of their time. We will encounter business people who want to do something to address the climate crisis and others who just want to fill their pockets as quickly as they can. Politicians such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will appear on stage. We’ll come across some people who only feign interest in energy questions to get one over on others. And a few who are seriously concerned about climate change.
But the story begins with a guy who had been a big fan of nuclear energy his entire life. Until one day he turned on the radio, took a pen and began to do a few calculations.
Best-selling author Margaret Heckel ("So regiert die Kanzlerin”, “Thus governs Chancellor Merkel”) tells the story of the Desertec idea as an exciting report. Heckel is one of the most prominent political journalists in Germany. Until 2006 she was political editor of "Financial Times Deutschland", then political editor of the quality papers “WELT”, and "Welt am Sonntag". She lives in Potsdam. (www.margaretheckel.de)
„Nobody has come as close to Merkel as Margaret Heckel. A must-read for both fans and opponents of Merkel”, Die Rheinische Post on “So regiert die Kanzlerin”
Table of Contents
Prologue: Five Mirrors in the Desert – or Why Anna Won’t Ever Have to Worry About her Electricity Supply Again
Chapter 1: Chernobyl and the Solar Constant - How the Physicist Gerhard Knies Discovered the Desert’s Potential for Generating Energy
Chapter 2: Well Met – The Prince, the Minister and an Idea that Finds its Way
Chapter 3: Teasing Germany - Nicolas Sarkozy and Solar Power
Chapter 4: Big Industry Makes its Entrance - The World's Largest Reinsurer and an Interview with Surprising Consequences
Chapter 5: Merkel’s Alleged Retaliation – and What Happens if Five Secretaries of State Drop in Unexpectedly
Chapter 6: The No. 1 Solar Engine - and Why it Was Oil Nonetheless that Dominated the 20th Century
Chapter 7: Strawberries from Egypt - and What They Have in Common with Electricity Exports from North Africa
Chapter 8: The Arab Spring - the Freedom Struggles in North Africa and the Energy Revolution
Chapter 9: Where the Energy Comes from - the European Union and the Security of Energy Supply
Epilogue: A Letter from Aunt Petra - and how Anna Goes to Visit her Solar Power Plant
