William Atkins
Wednesday, 23 July 2008 21:02
Science -
Energy
Page 1 of 2
The European Union is considering a giant energy project in which enormous numbers of solar panels and arrays would be placed in the sunny desert of North Africa’s Sahara to provide enough electricity for all the power needs of Europe. All it would take would be vast sums of money, labor, and time.
European scientists are considering a project that would position solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and concentrated solar power (CSP) arrays (mirrors) in the Sahara of northern Africa, which would fed sunlight into power plants.
Each power plant would then generate 50 to 200 megawatts of power. The number of solar panels and arrays would cover, according to MailOnline, an area just smaller than
“the size of Wales.” [MailOnline, “
Sahara solar panel farm 'the size of Wales' will power European cities”]
The country of Wales has an area of approximately 8,022 square miles (20,779 square kilomters).
Then, the electricity produced by these power plants would be moved across thousands of miles of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission lines from North Africa and across all of Europe.
Backers of the North African project would use direct current (DC) lines rather than traditional alternating current (AC) lines, because they are much more efficient over long distances.
The idea was talked about recently by Arnulf Jaeger-Walden, of the European Union’s Institute for Energy, at the
Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, Spain.
Jaeger-Walden stated, according to Guardian.co.uk,
“… it would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle Eastern deserts to provide all of Europe's energy needs.” [Guardian.co.uk: “
Saharan sun to power European supergrid ”]
What is the cost of this huge project? Can it be built efficiently? Please read on.
