Every year, 630,000 terawatt hours in the form of solar energy falls unused on the deserts of the so-called MENA states of the Middle East and North Africa. In contrast, Europe consumes just 4,000 terawatt hours of energy a year -- a mere 0.6 percent of the unused solar energy falling in the desert.  "The sun is the hidden asset of North Africa and the Middle East," says Gerhard Knies, a spokesman for the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), a network of scientists and politicians from various countries who have taken it upon themselves to solve Europe's energy problem. TREC began to develop the Desertec concept, a sweeping plan to build an array of solar thermal power plants in North Africa and the Middle East that would transmit power to Europe. Desertec was intended not only to provide energy, but also water and security, while reducing harmful carbon dioxide emissions and promoting peaceful relations and cooperation between the countries.

TREC’s vision of a sustainable energy future for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: A super-grid of solar thermal power plants and other renewable energy sources such as wind, hydroelectric and geothermal fully powers the region

The solar resources are most underutilized resources in the Middle East in general, and in the Arab world in particular despite the acute shortages in electricity and in potable water. With few exceptions in using solar energy for water heating in handful of countries, photovoltaic systems are virtually nonexistence, and in few countries, particularly in the GCC, local municipalities provide zero incentive for the deployment of solar system, and prohibit connecting photovoltaic to the grid in any shape or form despite the availability of more than 3,697 sunny hours per annum.