Five years after its launch in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, "Desertec is showing few results," notes German news website Spiegel Online.

The project hoped to exploit the solar and wind potential of deserts to supply sustainable energy world-wide. However, the plan is now coming under criticism, especially by the residents of the desert regions in question, who, according to several human rights organisations, are now wondering what the project is actually doing for them.

These groups are demanding a greater say for the local populations in the project, which Spiegel Online says was designed "in the back rooms of the Club of Rome […] a think-tank of old men pondering on how to save the world."

"After the Arab Spring, we want to respond to the demands for greater justice and shared decision-making. We must include civil society, that is the only way Desertec will succeed," explains a spokesperson for Germanwatch, a climate change NGO.

The website also stresses that the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII), launched in 2009 by a private consortium of banks and energy providers to develop the project in North Africa and the Middle East, faces growing competition. British firm Nur Energie plans to open a 2,000 Megawatt solar power plant in Tunisia in 2015. The electricity produced will be exported to Italy.

The project manager says it is moving ahead –