European politicians are discussing ambitious plans to harvest the energy of the Saharan sun, connecting a vast network of solar panels to electricity grids across the continent. According to The Guardian, the project, estimated to cost up to £35.7 billion, is backed by Gordon Brown and President Sarkozy of France.

The project is still at an early stage and faces daunting financial and technological obstacles. Solar power’s supporters say it will take ten years for it to become economically competitive, and while undersea cables to Sicily and Spain are planned for construction in 2010-2012, it is not known how they will be financed.

As the world grows increasingly anxious about climate change and dwindling fossil fuels, ideas that once sounded like science fiction are becoming ever more plausible.

The EU last year set a mandatory target of producing 20 per cent of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020, and there are also big political imperatives in play.

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