Supporters of Dii Desert Energy met in Cairo at the beginning of November. The predecessor organisation Desertec is better known. In the meantime, today’s Dii Desert Energy has established itself as a competence centre and contact broker for renewable energy projects in the MENA region. The number of partners has practically doubled compared to the previous year. In his report, Christof von Branconi describes the challenges that first-mover projects have to solve.