Sahara Solar To Power Half the World By 2050

eldavojohn writes "A Japanese/Algerian effort called The Sahara Solar Breeder Project employs a simple concept revolving around the pure silica in the sand of the Sahara Desert. The silica can be used to build vast solar arrays which will then provide the power and means to build more solar arrays in a classic breeder model. They would then use DC powerlines utilizing high temperature superconductors. The lead of the project points out that silica is the second most abundant resource in the Earth's crust. The project's lofty goals to harness the Sahara's energy has a few requirements — including 100 million yen annually — but also the worldwide cooperation of many nations and the training of the scientists and engineers to create and man these desert plants. The once deadly wasteland of the Sahara now looks like a land rich in an important resource: sunlight."

Comments

Well, we've finished with the hard part

[elrous0]

Now all we have to do is build a massive worldwide network of new transmission lines, stabilize the governments of Africa, and get every country in the world to agree on how the power is to be shared.

Re:Well, we've finished with the hard part

[NevarMore]

Cheap electricity would go a long way to stabilize Africa.

Re:Well, we've finished with the hard part

[elrous0]

Well it certainly worked that way with the oil and diamonds.

Re:Well, we've finished with the hard part

[hedwards]

No it wouldn't. What's destabilizing Africa at this point is corrupt politicians and other government officials. Providing a huge pot of cash isn't going to help that. The assumption you're making only applies when it's incompetence causing the problems rather than corruption. If it were just incompetence that would eventually solve itself, all they'd have to do is ask for help from the outside world. With corruption there is an incentive to keep the people out that might threaten your cash stream.

Re:Well, we've finished with the hard part

[copponex]

I think he's assuming that the Western governments don't purposefully impoverish the same nations again by forcing them into contracts that don't allow them any rights or infrastructure to process the finished goods themselves.

Re:Well, we've finished with the hard part

[Yvanhoe]

Which is recognized widely as a missed opportunity. Countries like Norway or Saudi Arabia proved that when used correctly (ie. through state-controlled companies, yes), oil brings wealth to the citizens. IT doesn't do so automatically and it won't help solve human right issues, but when used correctly it is a great opportunity of development.

The problem is not having valuable resources, it is having corrupted leaders to negotiate them. A good leader would use that as an opportunity to bring knowledge and business opportunities to its country. A corrupt one will just give you a free pass as long as you put 50 millions in his pockets every year.

Re:Well, we've finished with the hard part

[operagost]

Yup. None of their problems have to do with local warlords and despots doing what they have done best for all of recorded history: steal, kill, and destroy.

If you think pointing the finger at the west will solve all the world's problems, you might be a progressive.

Re:Well, we've finished with the hard part

[AlecC]

The state owned company is only the start. If, as you say, the state is corrupt, this just diverts the loot in a different fashion. Norway and Saudi Arabia work for opposite reasons. In Norway you have a working democracy in one of the least corrupt countries in the world, and one which has a strong sense of social coherence. Norwegians are happy to see the oil wealth as belonging to all Norwegians, because they all see themselves as part of the same "tribe". In Saudi Arabia, you have an absolute monarch in total control. The Saudi Royal family, consisting of a few thousand people, has a total grasp on the oil wealth, And, just as Norwegians are happy to share the wealth with other Norwegians, to sot prices are happy to share the wealth with other princes. Then, collectively, they decide how much wealth to allow to trickle down to the rest of the population, who had better look grateful for whatever they receive, or else.

Possibly tribalism is the most destructive influence in Africa: everybody seems to think that different rules apply to fellow-tribesmen than apply to other tribes. In the West, we have managed largely to get our national boundaries to match our tribal ones - or vice versa. Where this is not true - e.g. former Yugoslavia - problems arise.

Re:Well, we've finished with the hard part

[gsgriffin]

Spoken like a true capitalist hater. I lived in Africa for 16 months. I can tell you first hand that it has little to nothing to do with your assumptions of what you believe in the media. Africa has all the wealth it needs in resources today. #1 reason why people are starving to death and poverty is rampant: Some few people still act like greedy kings. I'm talking about the people in power in Africa. They use their power to control people and make themselves rich. Every lead of a country in Africa has deals and trades going on privately with other countries to make themselves rich...not their nation.

Look at Madagascar....rich in jewels, poor in population. Why? The leaders of the country have sold out to major corporations that mine the wealth. Who's to blame? Not the people buying the gems. Its the leaders of the country that allow the raping of their land for their own profit and not the people of their country.

Just a little FYI to help correct the media lies you've been hearing.

Re:Well, we've finished with the hard part

[lazn]

Like how the cahora bassa Hydroelectric Dam stabilized Mozambique since it's construction in the 70's with enough power for all of southern Africa? Wait, the project was continually sabotaged, the north side never completed and the part that was finished ran at a mere fraction of it's capability for 30 years...

Of course Africa's problems are all related to the lack of resources (on the most resource rich continent on the planet) and not politics at all, it can't possibly be politics at all.

Excellent idea thanks to the Professor

[digitaldc]

Professor Koinuma is on the right track here. The Sun, being the most abundant source of renewable energy, is obviously the most efficient resource to power the world.

We could power the world using only a fraction of the Earth's surface area.

I really hope that this project succeeds, even if it is done on a smaller scale.

Re:Excellent idea thanks to the Professor

[Overzeetop]

Or more appropriately, when the sun varies from it's current output by more than about 10%, running our electrical devices will no longer be in the top ten list of problems facing humanity.

I'm always intrigued by desert solar projects

[CrazyJim1]

The thing is, it doesn't cost much to try. And if this thing works, it could be a huge boon for the world. We definitely need to ramp up production on solar to get extra energy. Surplus energy could be used for electric cars of the future. Electric cars could then transport goods cheaper than they do now, allowing for people with low income to afford transportation & food.

Envirowackos won't like this

[CrimsonAvenger]

So, how long will this dream last after the first lawsuit to protect some insect local to the area to be covered by solar panels?

Yes, it's not the USA, but the companies involved in the process will be first world companies, with all the potential for idiotic lawsuits implicit in first world sensibilities....

Re:Envirowackos won't like this

[copponex]

Only someone as boringly stupid as you are could come up with such nonsense. The biodiversity of sub-Saharan Africa is spread out over tens of thousands of square miles. As long as the development doesn't impede migratory patterns or survival of some important food chain, no one is going to complain.

"Envirowackos" are trying to make sure that shortsighted development doesn't cause more harm in the long run than it fixes. When you have to spend more money cleaning up a mess than it saved in economic productivity, it's not even economically useful and it's potentially disastrous for humans.

Take your hollow viewpoint back to whatever rotting pundit orifice you dragged it out of.

No good reason

[name_already_taken]

Why DC when AC is better for long distances?

It's not - high voltage is better for long distances than low voltage, but it doesn't matter if it's AC or DC.

AC is better because it can be run through a transformer and stepped up or down to different voltages for long distance or local distribution - it's the high voltage that's better for long distances because Power = Volts x Current, and wires carry voltage more easily than they carry current. The efficiency of the transmission line has nothing to do with wether the voltage is AC or DC, but everything to do with how high the voltage is.

High voltage DC could be used, but before the advent of inverter technology there was no easy way to step a DC voltage up or down, so power generating utilities almost universally use AC.

Using an ideal superconductor instead of normal metal wires would eliminate the resistive losses in the transmission line, but it sure sounds expensive.

DC is used at some points in the power grid, presumably at interconnect sites where power from two or more generating facilities has to be combined and the AC voltages are out of phase or not at the same frequency.

I honestly think the inclusion of superconductors is just to make the project more buzzworthy. There's no advantage to using high voltage DC especially when they're intending to run PV production plants off of it - A/C is much more useful in that case.

At least Saharan Africa is more stable than sub-Saharan Africa politically. Haven't been there since the late 1970s, but it was a fun vacation.

Re:Yen

[pushing-robot]

That's what they're asking for the five year "problem-solving phase", i.e. the engineers-doodling-on-a-whiteboard part. Still seems way too low, though, considering the scope of the project.

Also, by "power half the world" I assume they mean "power the whole world for half the day", since even in the sahara the sun does occasionally set. IMO, a means of efficiently storing enough power to run half the world would be an even bigger feat than tiling the sahara with PV.