Research looks to world's deserts for solar

Some researchers have made the claim that the Earth receives more raw energy from the sun in one hour than what the entire world uses in a year. Considering that the sun is the biggest power plant in our solar system, and our impact on the environment has become a serious issue of preservation, it is imperative that we start making serious strides toward a plan of action to capture, store, and use as much of this energy as possible.

Research carried out by Greenpeace, along with several other groups, deduced that deserts are potent enough to meet up to 25 percent of the world’s electricity demands by 2050.

In the Sahara desert, one can obtain close to 83 watts per square meter. The unpopulated area of the Sahara desert is over 9 million square kilometers, which, if covered with solar panels, would provide 750 terawatts of renewable electrical power. The Earth’s current energy consumption is around 13.5 terawatts at any given moment.

Although desert-based solar seems to be a feasible solution to producing mass amounts of renewable energy, there are serious drawbacks that may overshadow the prospect of building massive solar plants in the desert.

According to study released by Ecofriend.org, extreme temperatures are a major setback. The intense heat of the desert makes solar capture much less efficient. In concert with the high temperatures, winds in these areas blast solar panels with dense dust, which also reduces efficiency. But perhaps the biggest road block for solar energy in the desert is the lack of water which is necessary to cool both PV and thermal solar installations.

With both the pros and cons in mind, there are already plans to implement solar installations in the Sahara for Europe’s energy demands.

European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger announced in a press release to Reuters.com that Europe will start importing solar energy from the Algerian and Moroccan Sahara.

“I think some models starting in the next 5 years will bring some hundreds of megawatts to the European market,” he said.