Saharan sun's solar power could provide Europe's electricity

[Besoeker]

Originally Posted by sonimus

Actually it would require only 700 km2 of solar panels in Sahara to power all the world!

Don't know where you got that from.
It's not correct.

[LMagic007]

Originally Posted by sonimus

Actually it would require only 700 km2 of solar panels in Sahara to power all the world!

This article may help provide you some conceptual background of what they are on about.

“Every year, each square kilometre of desert receives solar energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil. Multiplying by the area of deserts world-wide, this is nearly a thousand times the entire current energy consumption of the world.” said Dr Franz Trieb, Project Manager for a set of reports on trans-European renewable energy networks.

Not much desert would be required. As the map above demonstrates, the larger red square on the left shows an area of 254 km × 254 km of hot desert that, if covered with concentrating solar power plants, would provide electricity equivalent to the current electricity consumption of the whole world. The smaller square (110 km × 110 km) shows a corresponding area for the European Union (when it included 25 countries). Time now to translate vision into action.

http://thelazyenvironmentalist.blogspot.com/2007/11/eumena-desertec-concept-takes-root-in.html

DESERTEC HOME
http://www.desertec.org/

Of course it's theoretical only designed to show the scale. Obviously they wont build that many solar power stations in such close proximity, but rather disperse them around the world. Also a range of renewable energy technologies will play their part, it seems that no single technology will dominate, though solar and wind do look to play significant roles.

Also;
http://www.darkoptimism.org/2008/05/...mal-power-csp/

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan

http://www.trec.net.au/00csp/cspprojectsworldwide.html

http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/...ate73_data.htm

[Besoeker]

Originally Posted by LMagic007

This article may help provide you some conceptual background of what they are on about.

Maybe it will help sonimus.
An area of 254km x 254km is about 65,000 km^2.
Not 700.

[LMagic007]

Originally Posted by Besoeker

Maybe it will help sonimus.
An area of 254km x 254km is about 65,000 km^2.
Not 700.

Yes I think sonimus can possibly work that out for himself, which is why I posted it being of course 64,516 square kilometres.

[Besoeker]

Originally Posted by LMagic007

.....being of course 64,516 square kilometres.

I'm sure the greater degree of resolition is of profound significance......

[LMagic007]

Originally Posted by arno

Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, Arnulf Jaeger-Walden of the European commission's Institute for Energy, said it would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle East deserts to meet all of Europe's energy needs.

Solar power from Saharan sun could provide Europe's electricity, says EU | Environment | The Guardian

See also;

Measures to implement DESERTEC

Construction of new concentrating solar thermal power plants has already begun in Spain and the USA (Andasol 1 & 2, Solar Tres, PS10, Nevada Solar One). Projects are underway in Algeria, Egypt and Morocco and further plants are planned in Jordan and Libya. Morocco is implementing a feed-in law to support wind power in particular.

In the EU, discussions are in progress concerning the construction of an HVDC-Supergrid across Europe (a Euro-Supergrid) and plans for offshore wind farms in Northern Europe, with an associated HVDC Supergrid, are taking shape. The Union for the Mediterranean plans to realize a Mediterranean Solar Plan and could provide the framework for implementing DESERTEC in EU-MENA

http://www.desertec.org/implementation.html