Sahara Desert Could Change World’s Energetic Future
2 August 2009 | Solar Power | 2 Comments
Nowadays, solar energy is the most important alternative energy source on the planet. Solar centrals will be the main electricity suppliers in the near future. The perfect areas, where these solar centrals would work at maximum capacity are deserts. In deserts the intensity of solar radiation during the day is very high and solar systems would reach maximum efficiency.
One of the most popular deserts, where are planned already several solar projects, is Sahara desert. Europe, Middle East and North Africa could be supplied with electricity produced in Sahara desert. The energy needs could be covered for a period of 40 years, shows a recent study. The most important companies in the world (20 companies) want to invest in the technology needed to produce electricity in Sahara desert. All projects made by these companies will be presented at the end of this year.
Researchers said that solar energy produced in Sahara desert in 6 hours is equal to the energy consumed on the entire planet in a year. These studies have led people to believe that the entire planet could receive electricity from Sahara. This type of project is very difficult to achieve, but with time and advancement in technology, in several years this large project could be a real thing. The costs for such a project are very high, about 400 billion euros, equivalent to building 10 advanced nuclear centrals. In 10 years this large amount of money would be invested and transformed into an inexhaustible energy source.
The electricity consumption on the entire planet is very big today. Researchers estimated that in 2050, world population will be 10 billion people, and to provide energy for their needs it would be necessary to produce energy, three similar planets. For these reasons the 20 companies (Desertec Organization) decided that until 2050 to produce 100GW of solar energy for Europe, Middle East and North Africa. This electricity produced will be transported on high voltage lines to electrical networks from every country.
These solar centrals could create a lot of work places (a 250MW central need services of 1000 workers and engineers in only 2 years). In this way, many countries from Middle East and many poorer countries, could create a new economy, providing jobs and stopping emigration. The risks in building such a big central are very high. The only factor that could damage the central is the sand. This sand could cover the solar system active surfaces and the central efficiency could decrease. For cleaning these surfaces the central need many employees to take care of these problems, and this would involve also a large amount of money. Desertec project includes also producing energy at night by installing a large number of Solar-Thermal centrals. These centrals are different from solar centrals, because are able to store solar heat at night or in cloudy days.
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all that is nice but problem is wind and dust who go solar boards
I believe that solar power is the way forward, it made my hair go white, i love being blonde, although i’d consider myselfm as a clever blonde.