Germany sees political gain from Sahara Solar plan

A caravan of camels loaded with sacks of raw salt travels across the desert near Tichit, Mauritania December 5, 2006.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 400-billion euro ($557 billion) renewable energy project linking northern Africa and the European Union could spur political cooperation across the region, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Friday.

"It's a visionary project in many ways," Steinmeier, a key proponent of the Desertec project to be launched on Monday, told a group of journalists from the Foreign Press Association (VPA).

A group of companies from Europe and northern Africa will meet in Munich on Monday to map out large-scale projects that would harvest solar thermal energy from the deserts of northern Africa and the Middle East for use there and in Europe.

Steinmeier said the advantages were not just technological.

"There is also great potential with the project for increasing regional co-operation throughout all of northern Africa, and between some states that still have closed borders," he added.

"Politically, it is a very interesting project that is hopefully being appreciated not only north of the Mediterranean but across north Africa as well," Steinmeier said.

German reinsurer Munich Re has invited executives from blue chip companies such as Siemens, E.ON, RWE and Switzerland's ABB along with firms from southern Europe and northern Africa to an inaugural meeting in Munich on Monday.

About 10 companies are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding setting up the Desertec Industrial Initiative.

The projects would use concentrated solar power (CSP) -- a technology that uses mirrors to harness the sun's rays to produce steam and drive turbines to produce electricity -- from the Sahara and deliver to markets locally and in Europe.

Desertec officials hope the Sahara could be supplying 20 gigawatts of power -- the equivalent of 20 large conventional power plants -- by 2020 and one day deliver 15 percent of Europe's electricity, helping the EU meet CO2 reduction targets.

(Reporting by Erik Kirschbaum, editing by Philippa Fletcher)