“Our co-operation contract with Desertec will run out at the end of the year, and we won’t extend it,” E.ON press official Georg Opperman told Recharge.

E.ON was one of the founding members of DII in 2009, together with several other German companies such as insurance giant Munich RE, fellow utility RWE, and industrial powerhouses Siemens and Bosch.

Siemens and Bosch have since left DII as well after giving up their solar businesses, although the initiative – which seeks to spur renewable developments in desert regions, mostly in North Africa and the Middle East – is also contemplating large wind power projects.

Amid