It begins with a smoker taking a break at the side of the road.

The participants of the World Economic Forum in Davos hurry by.

But he just stands there, watching the people and the traffic jam on the promenade.

Eyes meet, everyone knows each other: "Hello, Mr. Terium, what are you doing here?" Because Peter Terium is no longer expected in Davos.

Carsten Knop

Editor.

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Until 2017, the Dutchman was CEO of the German energy group RWE, to which Süwag belongs in Frankfurt, and of the company Innogy, which later split off from it.

Then he had to leave from one day to the next.

That was long ago.

Shaking hands makes the jump to the present, then Terium puts out the cigarette: "Just come with me," he says and opens a door on which the name "Neom" can be read.

It's one of those shops that are set up in Davos during the World Economic Forum as a kind of trade fair stand in the big political and managerial circus to advertise their own cause.

Upon entering, large screens in wood paneled surroundings show videos of a new world that Terium is now building.

Neom stands for a city planned by the government of Saudi Arabia with an attached technology park in the north-west of the country near the Gulf of Aqaba and on the Red Sea coast.

26,000 square kilometer area

Memories are awakened, again of the year 2017. At that time, Neom was presented in Riyadh by the controversial Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

It should reorganize its country for the time after the oil production.

The project is expected to cost around $500 billion.

Significantly, the IPO of the state oil company Saudi Aramco contributed to the financing.

An area of ​​over 26,000 square kilometers is planned for Neom.

For comparison: Hesse is a good 21,000 square kilometers in size.

Neom will be in the northwest of the country, on the Red Sea and on the border with Egypt and Jordan: "It's a landscape you've never seen," says Terium, who now spends most of his life there.

He is responsible for the construction of the energy and water supply, as well as for agriculture.

The task is certainly technically attractive, beyond the money that Terium gets for it.

Because Neom should feed its energy requirements exclusively from wind and solar power.

Almost a year ago, the foundation stone was laid for a factory to produce green hydrogen: A subsidiary of Thyssen-Krupp is also involved in the plant called "Neom Green Hydrogen Company", for the construction of which alone five billion dollars will be spent.

As early as 2026, the gas is to be exported via the newly built port of Duba.

“Everything you need will be within ten minutes walking distance”

Then Terium points to a model of a narrow, tall house.

The house also has a programmatic name: "The Line".

And then it turns out that this house will actually be a city 170 kilometers long and only 200 meters wide, to be built from the Red Sea inland through the desert.

Millions of people are supposed to live here, in a tower up to 500 meters high.

There are no roads here, only underground trains and air taxis from Volocopter, also from Germany.