Sahara is the solution for our power needs

Solar power from Saharan sun could provide Europe's electricity, says EU

A tiny rectangle superimposed on the vast expanse of the Sahara captures the seductive appeal of the audacious plan to cut Europe's carbon emissions by harnessing the fierce power of the desert sun.

Dwarfed by any of the north African nations, it represents an area slightly smaller than Wales but scientists claimed yesterday it could one day generate enough solar energy to supply all of Europe with clean electricity.


"It would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle East deserts to meet all of Europe's energy needs."

www.guardian.co.uk...
image source: http://www.nrk.no/contentfile/file/1.6152349!f169CropList/img650x367.jpg

reply to post by Daniem

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I was talking about this same idea with some friends the other day. I don't know if anyone on ATS has ever taken I-10 from San Antonio to El Paso, but if you have you know we have more than enough room for a nice jumbo sized solar farm.

I think the democrats hard-headedness on the issue of energy is insane. I'm not to sure about coal, but I definitely believe we should be pushing for solar and nuclear power.

the main problem with making a huge solar plant or any electric plant in the middle of no where is transmitting the power back to where you need it... as a lot of power is dissipated in transmission lines especially if you are taking it all the way from North Africa to Europe... unless of course instead of transmitting electricity you pumped high pressure water back to Europe and then turned that into electrical power...

reply to post by purplemonkey

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Modern HVDC cables can keep energy losses down to around 3% per 1,000km

reply to post by purplemonkey

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Strange that you mention dissipation regarding electrical transmission yet you seem to think that pushing water across the same distance would not suffer from 'resistance' as well. Do you have any idea how much energy would be required to 'push' water from africa into europe? How could you possibly expect to see a net gain in energy?

Sure it seems far-fetched, but that's exactly what we need now: more ideas stimulating even more ideas.
There has been far too much tunnel vision with regards to our energy requirements over the past 100 years. It is time to think outside the box, dust off those "crack-brained" energy solutions and get to work on some alternatives to coal and fossil fuels.
Solutions start with baby steps.

My concern over the placement of something like this outside of a european controlled country is the defense of it.

Say England or the US were to build a solar plant in the middle east or the sahara would be that it would be easily open to attack from local rebel forces and terorism.

I would suggest that a godd placement for a solar plant would be somewhere/somehow streached along the length of Death Valley in the US.

reply to post by purplemonkey

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Considering the source of the energy is free, I doubt a little loss would be much of a problem.