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African solar power could be answer to Europe's energy woes
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Satisfying the world's energy demand is going to be one of the biggest issues of the 21st century. While the population continues to grow at an exponential rate, fueling the global economy remains a big hurdle. Desertec, an organization focused on sustainable energy for Europe, Asia and the Middle East, says they have an answer. Desertec says that the vast Sahara Desert of North Africa is perfect for harvesting the sun's energy.
Last week, Desertec announced plans to raise financing to research and build the project, which will cost an estimated $600 billion. Many people are optimistic about the project, which will take a while to implement because of the enormous amount of energy needed to generate.
Solar panels would be built to concentrate the suns rays on a single point. These panels would be computerized to optimize efficiency. The Concentration of light heats water, which then creates steam to turn turbines. An added benefit of the concentrated solar power, or CSP process is the desalination of water. Not to mention the green jobs Desertec could create and the friendship create from a global collaboration.
Two benefits of alternative energy are less CO2 emissions, and to get us off of fossil fuels, which won't last forever. Many people don't realize that even a plug in hybrid, for instance, is grabbing fuel that might have come from oil or coal. The idea is to completely rethink the world's energy grid, and the Sahara Desert's heat is probably a great start.
Solar power used to be thought of as a pipe dream because of the inefficiency and cost, but improvements are being made every day, and will continue to be made as competition grows. And Desertec isn't just for North Africa, but America, Australia and many other areas are looking into the idea. Areas near the equator, which get pelted with sun almost year round, is a perfect place to harvest gigawatts of power, or maybe even 1.21 jigawatts, which would make time travel possible according to Doc Brown from Back to the Future.
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