Sahara desert to provide solar power

The Sahara, known for its lush rain forests, fresh water streams and mild temperatures has been a major tourist attraction for decades. Wait, that was about 6 million years ago so there weren’t that many tourists back then like there is today. And now a few of those tourists want to harness the Saharan desert for its energy, solar energy. Japan and Algeria have started a joint operation, called the ‘Sahara Solar Breeding Project,' to create enough solar powered stations to supply half of the of the earth’s energy, yes half, used by humans by 2050. That’s a tall order, read on to find out how they aim on achieving this.

They plan on building a few small silicon manufacturing plants that will use the abundant supply of silicon in the sand found in the region to make high-quality solar panels. Like bacteria, the more panels they make, the more power is made and in turn the more plants they will build. Hideomi Koinuma from the University of Tokyo say’s that even though it’s never been attempted before, using the resources at hand is the logical choice to begin the joint project and goes on to say, “From the viewpoints of quality, quantity and chemistry, Sahara sand is hard to beat for use as silicon for solar cells.”

Along with the efforts of both Japan and Algeria, there are a host of other nations doing something along the same lines with the Desertec Foundation; however their goal is only to provide 15% of Europe’s power by 2050, a low aim. To deliver the power created by all the solar plants Hideomi wants to use high temperature superconductors to deliver the solar power 500Km or more. While the people at the Desertec Foundation say his idea isn’t cost effective and that high voltage DC lines are more efficient Koinuma, you just can’t keep this guy down, disagrees and goes on to say, “Even if we need to cool the grid line with liquid nitrogen, the system could be cost-competitive.” We’ll just have to wait and see as we lounge along one of the Sahara’s many seaside vistas.

Eavesdropper

Photo by Frans Lemmens