The ambitious scheme has seen several large backers (Siemens and Bosch) withdraw in recent weeks and now Spain's government is starting to falter over a commitment to build power installations in Morroco - what would have been the first steps of the ambitious scheme. This can hardly be surprising given Spain's financial woes.
The scheme aims to bring 125GW of power by 2050 to Europe's shores via undersea cables but has been understandably criticised as it will take all of the energy it generates away from Africa which has its own power problems, needs and demands.
It now seems likely that China will enter the fray to fill the gap as they are interested in high voltage direct current technology such as that being deployed here to bring the power under the Mediterranean to the continent.
It does seem wholly unfair, however, that Europe would be able to deploy a massive renewable energy generation infrastructure in north Africa and none of the energy generated would be used locally. Europe would be pretty miffed if the roles were reversed. Surely collaboration and knowledge transfer would work better than simple exploitation? I'm sure the north African countries that are involved in the scheme are at the very least receiving a healthy land rental but how many of the other contracts are being fulfilled by local organisations? Few I would reckon...
However, here's hoping that the project does come to fruition - it would be an incredible feat of engineering and further proof that renewable power works on a massive scale...
