The idea is to use solar. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deserts_of_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deserts_of_Australia > About 40% of Australia

The idea is to use solar. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deserts_of_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deserts_of_Australia > About 40% of Australia is covered by dunes. Australia is the driest inhabited continent,[6][7] with the least fertile soils. We have room for solar panels to generate the entire energy consumption of the globe. Raw material availability isn't a problem in general. The water required is under 10% of what is currently used for agriculture, and if you want more you desalinate it. Desalination needs a lot of energy of course, but the one thing they won't be short of in this scenario is cheap electricity to power desalination plants. The thinking behind this is pretty simple. Australia is a major exporter of natural gas. If they can get the price of producing Hydrogen to below the cost of fracking for methane, then it's a winner. Last I checked they were a factor of 4 away, but that was before the Ukraine War. I don't know if it's possible to drop the production price by a factor of 4, but the price of natural gas rising by a factor of 4 seems entirely possible. Australia and Canada are the planets kings of resource extraction. This sort of thing is what they excel at. Unlike Canada, Australia has the land, the sun, and is next to Asia (with Queensland the closest). Asia is the worlds industrial base but is energy poor. Yes it is currently just a dream, but maybe not a pipe dream.