* Desertec Plans First Big Solar Power Plant in Morocco:  the Desertec Industrial Initiative, a joint effort  of more than a dozen major companies and banks that plans to produce solar electricity in North Africa and the Middle East for Europe, expects to build the first big solar plant park in Morocco. A July 7 story in the German business paper “Handelsblatt” quoted Paul van Son, the Dutch head of the initiative, as saying his group expects to build a plant producing anywhere between 500 and 1,000 MW in that country, both for Morocco’s domestic market but also for export to Europe via an existing transmission power cable to Spain. Desertec will not only consider a solar thermal plant, the initial idea, but also other technologies such as photovoltaics and wind power. Desertec was organized last year under the leadership of Munich Re, a major global reinsurance company (H&FCL July, Aug. 09, Jan. 10).

   * China Plans to Produce 15 Million Green Cars: The People’s Republic of China which is already the world’s largest car market with production of 13.79 million motor vehicles – cars, light commercial vehicles, minibuses, trucks, buses and coaches - last year (USA: 5.71 million, Japan 7.93 million) wants to be a leader in green transportation as well. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has a ten-year blueprint that calls for the production of 15 million clean energy automobiles annually by 2020, according to the “Shanghai ... Log in to view full article.