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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.'"
>>The problem is that nobody in the US wants to pay to run the power cables from these areas to population centres.
Nah. We've tried building large scale solar plants here, but, for example, because we had 13 tortoises living in a desert the size of some of the smaller states, environmentalists got the sites shut down. With the support of our "environmental" senators Feinstein and Boxer.
thanks and eat shit
I've just come back from mainland Spain. Most popular tourist destination in the country. First time, and probably the last.
What a bunch of lazy fuckers! Height of the tourist season and shops still shut one day a week. And they shut for 2-3 hours in the afternoon.
Resturants offering American sized portions don't help their profits.
No wonder they are in the shit.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Investing in solar power from northern Africa is also investing in an area known for violence and great instability. Could they pick an area more likely to be involved with terrorists bombings? Frankly if it were my bag of coins I would not invest in anything that has to do with northern Africa.