The DESERTEC Foundation and the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF) signed a memorandum of understanding in Tokyo, Japan. The two non-profits announced that they will exchange knowledge and know-how, and coordinate their work together to develop suitable framework conditions for the deployment of renewables and to establish transnational cooperation in Greater East Asia.

As a part of its mission, JREF promotes the Asia Super Grid Initiative to facilitate an electricity system based fully on renewable energy in Asia. This initiative envisions the interconnection of the national grids of Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia, and Russia with low-loss High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines. These would enable the delivery of electricity from the region’s most abundant renewable energy sources to its centers of demand whilst simultaneously balancing out the peaks and troughs of fluctuating renewable energy sources over a wider area.

The mission of the DESERTEC Foundation is the worldwide implementation of the DESERTEC Concept, a solution to provide climate protection, energy security and development by generating sustainable power from the sites where renewable sources of energy are at their most abundant.

• DESERTEC Foundation, Hamburg, Germany
• Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF), Tokyo, Japan