Europe Looks to Sahara as Source of Solar Energy

What the Sahara Desert lacks in water it more than makes up in terms of sunlight. The relentless solar beat down imposed on the vast, dry expanse that stretches across much of northern Africa is looking mighty fine in the eyes of European nations to the north who seek opportunities to make strides in green technology on a scale that is appropriate to the energy demands of its industrialized societies.

As reported by The Guardian, a German-led alliance of 12 industrial concerns is proposing a $400 billion plan that would install a network of solar farms across the Sahara Desert, generating electricity that would be conveyed into Europe via a new network of transmission infrastructure.

If implemented, the project could begin sending electricity north as early as 2015, and could account for 15 percent of Europe's power needs by 2050.

Ironically, as PhysOrg points out, the same political instabilities and challenges residing in several African nations that lend to volatility in acquiring petroleum would still need to be addressed for the new, green energy relationships to be struck with the regional parties.

Worth mentioning as an aside is Tonic's having reported back in September of an altogether different vision for the Sahara, though one that is also borne out of concern for how energy and climate have been determined to interact. We previously wrote of a proposal to use a network of water desalination and distribution to transform the Sahara into a forested, precipitation-making, planet-cooling, carbon-sequestering, living, green machine.

It will be interesting to watch plans unfold for the Sahara Desert in terms of its role in an overall global climate strategy. Do we use the desert to harvest sunlight for clean energy? Do we transform the land to sustain a forest that will take carbon out of the air?

Do we dare ask: why not do both?

Photo courtesy of Michael Martin, via Wikimedia Commons