Paper subject

Papers related to power generation from sun and/or wind energy in the deserts of the MENA region or with focus on the transmission of electricity between this region and Europe will be
considered for the competition. We would thus like to place this year’s focus on the following topics:

• What are the macroeconomic effects for RE deployment?
• Which industrial policies are the most crucial for developing the RE sector?
• How to shape the cooperation between universities, research institutions and industry?
• How can the education system meet the challenges of new growth in the RE sector that will be reliant on a prepared local labor force?
• What are some practical ways local communities can engage with centralized power production and vice versa? What are the factors for cultivating civil society support?
• Large-scale RE infrastructure vs. decentralized RE: what are the benefits for local livelihoods?
• RE support schemes: how to encourage RE in a smart way?
• How to encourage the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies?
• Targets without implementation strategies: what are the concrete steps that countries should take to produce their first gigawatts towards meeting their RE targets?
• Applied research: which prototypes/pilot projects are particularly innovative and could be implemented effectively on a larger scale?

Award

The authors of the 4 best papers will receive free entrance to the 4th Dii Desert Energy Conference where they will have the opportunity to present a brief summary of their work. This year’s conference will be from the 30th –31st of October 2013 in Rabat, Morocco and all travel expenses will be covered. Furthermore, the winners’ papers will be published on the Dii website. An additional 6 authors will receive free entrance to the conference.

Submission materials

1. Executive summary: 4 pages (font: Arial 11), full version of the study should be available upon request.
2. Completed submission form.
3. Motivation letter: 1 page (font: Arial 11) answering the following questions: how is your work related to the topic of renewable energy produced in the MENA deserts? Why do you want to present your results at the conference?
4. Updated CV.

Contact/Deadline

Please submit your application in English, and in PDF form, no later than Monday September 2, 2013 to Noëlie Vegas (vegas(at)dii-eumena.com, Tel: +49 89 340 77 05 82).

About Dii

Desertec stands for the overall vision of supplying a large part of the world with sustainable power, by tapping the energy potential of the desert. Dii (launched as "Desertec Industrial Initiative") is a private industry consortium working towards enabling this vision in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EUMENA).

The initiative was founded under German law as a GmbH (limited liability company) in Munich on the 30th October 2009 by 13 signatories from North Africa and Europe. Dii expanded as further companies worldwide joined as shareholders or associated partners. Currently Dii consist of more than 55 companies and institutions, including the non-profit DESERTEC Foundation, and the Fraunhofer and Max-Planck research institutes.

Today, more than 30 people work at the Dii head office in Munich, Germany.

Dii also has branches in Rabat, Morocco and Tunis, Tunisia.

Dii seeks and welcomes all forms of collaboration with leading or complementary international political and institutional initiatives who, like Dii, are devoted to developing the markets for largescale sustainable energy production and transmission.