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I would be curious to know why no one has ever tried to put large solar power plants in the Sahara desert. Covering large parts of uninhabited land with photovo
by N19PEDL2 4y ago
I would be curious to know why no one has ever tried to put large solar power plants in the Sahara desert. Covering large parts of uninhabited land with photovoltaic arrays and transporting the electricity to Europe via power lines and submarine cables seems to me easier than launch massive solar arrays into space and beam down the power. I know that many countries in that area are politically unstable, but I guess it is possible to find at least one of them whose government is able to guarantee the security of the power plants upon payment of royalties.
- prennert 4y agoThere was DESERTEC. It pivoted due to multiple issues. For a writeup, see for instance: https://medium.com/the-future-world/power-for-europe-from-african-deserts-what-happened-to-desertec-8cc5aff359c6 https://medium.com/the-future-world/power-for-europe-from-af...
- N19PEDL2 4y agoThanks! I didn't know this, it's very interesting.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoThis is basically happening and is definately easier than space based solar. Morocco doesn't have much fossil fuels, so they're wanting to roll out renewables. They also connect to the European grid already and Spain connects to France so I'd guess in Winter there will be some movement of power in a northerly direction. Currently I think the power mostly flows in Morocco's direction. There's at least one british team looking to directly link the Moroccon power to the UK via sea-cables, skipping Spain/France. https://xlinks.co/morocco-uk-power-project/ https://xlinks.co/morocco-uk-power-project/ At the other end of the Mediterreanean I think Cyprus and Isreal are linking up power giving another European grid entry point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuroAsia_Interconnector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuroAsia_Interconnector