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[Technology] Should we turn the Sahara Desert into a huge solar farm?



portlock seagull

Well-known member
Jul 28, 2003
17,777
Would you trust the worlds energy supply in the hands of a few corrupt African dictators?!


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This. Way too unstable a region to invest in. You’d never get the contracts signed between coups.
 




Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
30,458
Hove
I'm sure if you covered all of the sahara, it would lower the temperature and in fact change the weather for that area. The cost would also be beyond your average oil rich arab country(who would prefer to sell you fossil fuel).
Another hypothetical situation would be hydropower, or wind turbines filling every available square foot of the atlantic....not cost effective. Have all the politicians of the world talk into giant balloons. The hot air most come out with could melt the polar ice caps.
How about sending satellites up to harness the suns power. The amount of copper wire needed could be another thing though.
Basically it all comes down to how much will it cost?

You’d actually only need to cover a small area as a percentage of the entire desert.
 




A1X

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 1, 2017
20,537
Deepest, darkest Sussex
I think we'd need some form of solution for the security and other issues, maybe it involves the land effectively being owned by the UN on behalf of the whole international community? In theory though, it seems stupid that it's taken this long to do it, and it's not even started yet.
 






father_and_son

Well-known member
Jan 23, 2012
4,652
Under the Police Box
Of course not, which is why [MENTION=435]Stat Brother[/MENTION] asked "should we..." and, frankly, some good old-fashioned British imperialism is exactly what the world needs right now.

So let's go and stake a claim for the Sahara - what could possibly go wrong?

To paraphrase Eddie Izzard...

Brit: "This is all ours now!"

Bedouin: "But we live here!?"

Brit: "Yes but, do you have a flag?"
 


nicko31

Well-known member
Jan 7, 2010
18,574
Gods country fortnightly


Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,888
West west west Sussex






Robdinho

Well-known member
Jul 26, 2004
1,067
Putting Europe's energy supply into one extremely fragile, outsourced basket would have a few security concerns as well I'd imagine
 


rippleman

Well-known member
Oct 18, 2011
4,988
Other deserts are available throughout the world.

Indeed. The Sahara wouldn't be a goer because of the ever changing dictatorships in north Africa and the fact that ISIS and other loony terror groups would be forever trying to blow it up.

So what about the Mojave in USA? Seems fine from a security perspective (Trump could just build a **** off great wall around it)
 






GT49er

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 1, 2009
49,181
Gloucester
Earlier myself and Lil Miss Stat were listening to last weeks Infinite Monkey Cage (Radio 4 science and comedy) about The Sun.

The snail guy casually mentioned:-

'If the Sahara desert was turned into a solar farm we'd have free energy in perpetuity'.
Point of order! One day the sun is going to burn out (though hopefully not in a timescale that will greatly affect any of us!)
 








Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,888
West west west Sussex
Point of order! One day the sun is going to burn out (though hopefully not in a timescale that will greatly affect any of us!)

The sun is currently halfway through it's life span.
I believe time is on our side.
 


Pavilionaire

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
31,263
If the Sahara is turned in to a big solar energy farm I expect FIFA to be all over it. Before you know it the 2034 World Cup will be awarded to football hotbed of Chad.
 


Always a closer option:moo:
 

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Mr Putdown

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2004
2,901
Christchurch
This. Way too unstable a region to invest in. You’d never get the contracts signed between coups.

It hasn’t stopped the Chinese, their investments and contracts in sub-Saharan Africa totalled $299 billion from 2005 to 2018.

On top of that they have provided $130 billion in loans to African nations since 2000.
 




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