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FTA > 1. Europe to plug into desert sunshine Solar energy harvested in the sunbleached dunes of the Sahara desert is set to power millions of homes in Britain

FTA > 1. Europe to plug into desert sunshine Solar energy harvested in the sunbleached dunes of the Sahara desert is set to power millions of homes in Britain and Europe. It's not just nice points. It's the entire point of the article.

TheLoafOfBread 3y ago
And that's the reason why this article is geopolitically naïve beyond comprehension. Morocco and Algeria does not like each other and can end up fighting tomorrow. Libya is a hot mess after French and Italians weren't able to hold their impulses and Egypt is under military government.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  If those countries had much oil, we would have made sure those wells were pumping (notice how quick we rebuilt wells in Iraq?). When solar is the new oil, there might be similar efforts to keep the panels illuminated.
  - TheLoafOfBread 3y ago
    So who are we invading? Libya seems to be best bet.
    - M95D 3y ago
      EU doesn't do much invading and USA is too far to install cables. But EU might offer them to join...
      - ftth_finland 3y ago
        Libya to be invited to join the EU? LOL
- pimterry 3y ago
  It's not that implausible and certainly not naive - Morocco & Algeria are already integrated into European energy! Algeria is the largest supplier of gas to Spain, and has been for more than 20 years, largely via pipelines that run straight through Morocco. It's also been a major supplier to Portugal, though recently overtaken by Nigeria, whose gas also runs through both Algeria & Morocco. See https://www.iea.org/articles/spain-natural-gas-security-policy https://www.iea.org/articles/spain-natural-gas-security-poli..., https://www.iea.org/articles/portugal-natural-gas-security-policy https://www.iea.org/articles/portugal-natural-gas-security-p... for background, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medgaz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medgaz and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb%E2%80%93Europe_Gas_Pipeline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb%E2%80%93Europe_Gas_Pip... for details of the pipelines. There's tensions and all sorts of diplomatic complexity and that have come with that, it's certainly not perfect and there's been recent diplomatic challenges specifically, but it's worked well enough to reliably supply gas from Algeria & Nigeria to Europe for decades, and has largely protected Spain & Portugal from the recent Russian gas challenges in Europe (because of this setup, they have an 'Iberian exception' on gas in EU law). Not to say it won't be challenging, but given the profits involved, it's totally plausible to me that they could build a setup sufficient to deliver solar energy too.
  - skywal_l 3y ago
    Supplying gas, which takes weeks or month to be consumed which can be stored and which, ultimately can come from different sources is very different from supplying electricity directly. If Algeria were to stop providing gas to Europe suddenly, gas could always be sourced from somewhere else. It would clearly be a huge headache but it can be done (cf Russian gas crisis just 6 months ago). However, If Algeria decide to just stop providing electricity to Europe, what can Europe do? If you think Europe making themselves dependent on Russian gas was a blunder, making themselves dependent on African electricity is a geopolitical suicide.
Tade0 3y ago
I heard about Xlinks before and I'm cheering for it, but to me a shorter, but more powerful HVDC line to Spain and a plant there would yield better returns, and earlier at that. Solar is booming there anyway - there's currently 22GW connected to the grid, which is double that of the 2019 figure. A far cry from the days of the infamous sun tax. The world relies on Morocco for its minerals used in fertilizers so if it were not a safe place to invest, we would have worse problems to deal with, but still, the world record in HVDC line length might be not worth it.

TheLoafOfBread 3y ago

And that's the reason why this article is geopolitically naïve beyond comprehension. Morocco and Algeria does not like each other and can end up fighting tomorrow. Libya is a hot mess after French and Italians weren't able to hold their impulses and Egypt is under military government.

londons_explore 3y ago
If those countries had much oil, we would have made sure those wells were pumping (notice how quick we rebuilt wells in Iraq?). When solar is the new oil, there might be similar efforts to keep the panels illuminated.
- TheLoafOfBread 3y ago
  So who are we invading? Libya seems to be best bet.
  - M95D 3y ago
    EU doesn't do much invading and USA is too far to install cables. But EU might offer them to join...
    - ftth_finland 3y ago
      Libya to be invited to join the EU? LOL
pimterry 3y ago
It's not that implausible and certainly not naive - Morocco & Algeria are already integrated into European energy! Algeria is the largest supplier of gas to Spain, and has been for more than 20 years, largely via pipelines that run straight through Morocco. It's also been a major supplier to Portugal, though recently overtaken by Nigeria, whose gas also runs through both Algeria & Morocco. See https://www.iea.org/articles/spain-natural-gas-security-policy https://www.iea.org/articles/spain-natural-gas-security-poli..., https://www.iea.org/articles/portugal-natural-gas-security-policy https://www.iea.org/articles/portugal-natural-gas-security-p... for background, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medgaz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medgaz and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb%E2%80%93Europe_Gas_Pipeline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb%E2%80%93Europe_Gas_Pip... for details of the pipelines. There's tensions and all sorts of diplomatic complexity and that have come with that, it's certainly not perfect and there's been recent diplomatic challenges specifically, but it's worked well enough to reliably supply gas from Algeria & Nigeria to Europe for decades, and has largely protected Spain & Portugal from the recent Russian gas challenges in Europe (because of this setup, they have an 'Iberian exception' on gas in EU law). Not to say it won't be challenging, but given the profits involved, it's totally plausible to me that they could build a setup sufficient to deliver solar energy too.
- skywal_l 3y ago
  Supplying gas, which takes weeks or month to be consumed which can be stored and which, ultimately can come from different sources is very different from supplying electricity directly. If Algeria were to stop providing gas to Europe suddenly, gas could always be sourced from somewhere else. It would clearly be a huge headache but it can be done (cf Russian gas crisis just 6 months ago). However, If Algeria decide to just stop providing electricity to Europe, what can Europe do? If you think Europe making themselves dependent on Russian gas was a blunder, making themselves dependent on African electricity is a geopolitical suicide.

Tade0 3y ago

I heard about Xlinks before and I'm cheering for it, but to me a shorter, but more powerful HVDC line to Spain and a plant there would yield better returns, and earlier at that. Solar is booming there anyway - there's currently 22GW connected to the grid, which is double that of the 2019 figure. A far cry from the days of the infamous sun tax. The world relies on Morocco for its minerals used in fertilizers so if it were not a safe place to invest, we would have worse problems to deal with, but still, the world record in HVDC line length might be not worth it.