Europe To Import Sahara Solar Power Within 5 Years

An anonymous reader writes "If just 1% of the Sahara Desert were covered in concentrating solar panels it would create enough energy to power the entire world. That's a powerful number, and the European Union has decided to jump on its proximity to the Sahara in order to reap some benefits from the untapped solar energy beaming down on Northern Africa. Yesterday, European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger announced that Europe will start importing solar energy from the Sahara within the next five years. It is estimated that the initiative will cost €400 billion ($495 billion). It's part of an EU goal to derive 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2020. From the article: 'The EU is backing the construction of new electricity cables, known as inter-connectors, under the Mediterranean Sea to carry this renewable energy from North Africa to Europe. Some environmental groups have warned these cables could be used instead to import non-renewable electricity from coal- and gas-fired power stations in north Africa.' To this the energy minister replied, essentially, 'Good question, we'll get back to you on that.'"

Comments

Re:Green??

[LingNoi]

There is no such thing as renewable energy.

First you got to produce the panels which are environmentally damaging. Then you need to store the electricity in batteries which are also bad for the environment. Not only this but both things need to eventually be replaced as well. Sure it doesn't use oil, doesn't mean it's any better for the environment though. Even if you go with the pump water rather then use batteries idea it still requires flooding huge areas of the environment.

A lot of environmentalists don't really think ahead. They don't think when things scale up. Take the headline for example.

If just 1% of the Sahara Desert were covered in concentrating solar panels it would create enough energy to power the entire world.

To the average person that sounds great until you start to think about all the infrastructure needed to stick solar panels in the desert. You need to build roads and buildings for the project. You need to import materials needed for construction. You need to create huge barriers to stop sand storms from engulfing all your stuff.

According to wikipedia the Sahara is around "9,400,000 sq km or 3,630,000 sq miles". The makes 1% of the Sahara 94,000 kilo-meters or 58,408 miles. That's billions of solar panels.

I'm not saying that replacing energy production shouldn't be a goal, however to say we should build billions of solar panels in the dessert to replace environmentally damaging oil/coal power stations is both ridiculous and hypocritical. It lacks critical thinking, so just saying as long as it's renewable energy, do it just causes more harm then good.