According to some estimates, the world's desert can receive more energy from the sun in six
hours than what the entire globe can consume in a year.
I'm referring to the breathtaking Sahara Desert.
We're all aware that the Sahara is the world's largest hot desert, but it's also worth noting
that it's approximately the same area as China.
It stretches across ten countries and three time zones, and it is completely showered
by sunlight.
On a map that depicts annual sunshine hours around the world, we can see that there are
also some prominent hot regions in North America, South America, and Southern Africa, but they're
all nothing compared to what the Sahara gets.
Why is it so?
Well, the Sahara Desert receives a lot of sunlight for two main reasons.
First, the Sahara Desert sits almost parallel to the tropic of Cancer, which means that
the sun shines straight over it for most of the year.
The second reason is that clouds rarely develop or even exist over the whole Sahara desert,
so the sun's rays are not blocked and can freely penetrate the desert.
Due to this characteristic of the Sahara, many people believe it is the perfect location
on the planet to install solar panels and build solar farms.
That got me thinking about what would happen if we filled the entire desert with solar
panels.
I'm interested as to how much electricity we'd be able to generate with those solar
panels.
What impact would that have on our planet?
I did my own study and came up with the following.
To start, let us take a look at the Ouarzazate Solar Power Station in Morocco, which is currently
the world's largest concentrated solar power plant and a marvel of modern engineering.
This solar power station was estimated to cover a total area of 25 square kilometers
and can produce 582 megawatts of electricity once it is completely operational.
What’s so fascinating about this station is that it can store solar energy in the form
of superheated molten salt, allowing for continued electricity production even at night.
Morocco plans to build four more plants like this in the Sahara since they have already
invested more than nine billion dollars in solar energy.
These four plants can generate more than two thousand megawatts of electricity, enough
to provide around thirty-eight percent of Morocco's yearly electricity needs.
Because of this investment and as the only African country with a power line connecting
to Europe, Morocco will become the world's leading solar energy country, although much
of this energy will be transferred for profit to European Union countries.
Take note that this massive amount of energy is generated by only five small plants.
What happens if we take things a step further?
Let's bring in the German energy company Desertec, which is also the investor in the Moroccan
solar energy project and is one of the few companies thinking about Sahara solar energy
production in the future.
According to their analysis and statistics from the German aerospace center, a tiny solar
panel array in the Sahara could provide a hundred percent of Germany's total electrical
demands.
Around 18 trillion watts is what an array of a larger scale can give, which could power
the entire European Union, while a much larger array could power the entire world's modern
electricity needs.
The Desertec project, on the other hand, does not plan to turn the entire Sahara into a
solar farm, but the company's vision is still quite grandiose.
Their overall plan is to build a chain of enormous solar farms along the Sahara's borders
even further into the Middle East.
This series of solar farms is estimated to be able to satisfy the majority of Africa's
and the Middle East's electrical needs while any excess power will be sent to Europe via
cables, which might supply up to 15 percent of the continent's total electricity needs.
Although grandiose, the Desertec company's strategy has been subjected to much research
and investment.
But aren't you puzzled as to why solar farms will only be built around the Sahara's perimeter?
It's mainly because, while there are numerous clear advantages to building solar farms in
the desert, there are also numerous drawbacks.
Well, even if the Sahara is empty, and nearly no one will be forced to transfer or leave
their land, the same emptiness also implies that there is no infrastructure to support
the transport of vast amounts of materials into the desert in a cost-effective manner.
In fact, there are only around four highways that run from north to south throughout the
Sahara Desert.
Some of the areas are more than 600 kilometers from the nearest road, like the one in Chad.
This essentially means that transporting billions of solar panels in the Sahara will need numerous
new roads or railroads to be constructed, and that would be really expensive.
Desertec does not intend to go that far, and its plans solely include the construction
of plants within the perimeters of the Sahara.
How much would the entire project cost if we would continue to cover the Sahara with
solar panels?
A single solar panel that can generate an average of 350 watts of power already costs
between 200 dollars and 450 dollars.
This means the cost of the whole project would be even higher since moving and installing
these solar panels in the Sahara would be expensive.
That being said, there might be an extra 300 dollars in infrastructure costs and 250 dollars
in installation fees.
With this calculation, the previously mentioned 200 to 450 dollars for a 350-watt solar panel,
will now cost one thousand dollars.
That also means that the 51.4 billion solar panels that are needed to fully cover the
Sahara to power the entire planet will cost 51.4 trillion US dollars, that’s equal to
60 percent of global GDP.
This would also allow us to switch all of our electricity to renewable solar power.
Let's say we accept the challenge and invest the necessary funds to totally cover the Sahara
Desert in solar panels.
So, what's going to happen now?
Assuming that the solar panels are a hundred percent efficient, the Sahara Desert could
generate roughly 1.3 million terawatt-hours of electricity per year.
Consider this: in 2019, the entire human population spent around one hundred and seventy-three
thousand terawatt-hours of energy, and that number already includes all kinds of energy
humans consumed for that year, not just electricity.
Taking that into account, it's evident that solar panels covering the Sahara Desert would
create more than seven times the amount of electricity consumed by the entire planet’s
population right now.
Obviously, this would mean revolutionary advances in humanity's capabilities, not just a step
closer to a type 1 Kardashev civilization.
However, even if there are benefits, there are also drawbacks if we covered the Sahara
with solar panels.
The solar panels covering the Sahara, for example, will absorb the majority of the sunlight
that falls on it.
However, only a small portion of that heat will be transformed into electricity, and
the remaining will be sent to the environment as heat.
As a result of this heat, a feedback loop will occur.
So what is this feedback loop?
The heat that is sent to the environment by the solar panels would cause a large temperature
difference in the surrounding lands and oceans of the Sahara.
As a result, the surface air pressure will drop, allowing moist air to rise and condense
into clouds and rain across the desert.
This means that if we cover the entire Sahara in solar panels, we are also transforming
the desert into a green Sahara.
In some instances, this will be beneficial because it will free up vast land that can
be used for colonization, human habitation, and, most importantly for North Africa's enormous
economic development for their country and their people.
This, on the other hand, would be disastrous.
Dust carried over the Atlantic from the Sahara feeds and fertilizes the Amazon rainforest
in South America, while the Atlantic ecosystems likewise benefit from this nutritious dust.
If the Sahara becomes a green Sahara, eliminating all of the desert's sands might trigger a
chain of unanticipated events that could destroy the entire ecosystem in the Atlantic, the
Amazon, and even in other places.
A climate catastrophe that we had never experienced before could also be a result of this.
In conclusion, while covering the entire Sahara with solar panels would be amazing, it is
also impractical.
It would be dangerous for other desert-dependent ecosystems on the planet, and it isn't even
necessary.
Yes, solar panels are required to supply the modern electrical needs of all 8 billion inhabitants,
but they do not need to be located in the same place.
They may be scattered across the world's deserts or anywhere that is sunny enough, and hopefully,
some time in the future, we should have made significant development toward a more environmentally
friendly power source.
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