We are becoming more and more dependent on electricity. If we consider only the fact that in houses and apartments built a couple of decades ago, there are still enough sockets, and today we cannot install enough, no matter how few they are. Or how we suddenly become frustrated during a power outage, literally paralyzed, with the refrigerator slowly dissolving into the darkness, the phone dying and no communication. With the spread of electric cars, transportation capabilities have increased. According to expectations
Humanity has become so dependent on electricity that the amount of electricity used will triple by 2050.
Thus civilization and electricity go hand in hand, the only question being how to satisfy the incessant hunger for energy, and where to create the ever-increasing demand for energy. Fossil energy sources are past their prime, their stars rich in carbon dioxide, smoke and soot are dying, and renewable energies are the future. Therefore, life-giving electricity will come primarily from the wind and the sun. But as we know, the wind does not always blow, and the daytime sky is often cloudy. That is, in our temperate climate zone, but not in deserts.
There will be a large area, about a third of the land area is desert. In the Sahara Desert, the largest, with an area of 9.2 million square kilometers, the wind is constantly blowing, the sun is always shining, and
It is bombarded with 190 times more solar energy per year than humans consume in one year.
Even if we take into account that the average efficiency of solar panels is 15 percent, that is, they can only convert 15 percent of solar energy into electricity, there is still huge potential in the desert. If we can cut just a fraction of it, we will be able to say goodbye to the energy shortages that shape global politics and organize a new energy-filled world. However, we don't see them installing solar panels in the desert. I wonder why?
Solar panels will turn the desert green…
They played with meResearchers also have this idea, what if they covered the Sahara desert with solar panels and windmills. Two model calculations were made, one with 20 percent coverage and the other with 50 percent coverage, and some very interesting results were obtained. Obviously, the energy will come in abundance from a huge area of 1.8 or 4.5 million square kilometers, and we will not even know where to put the enormous electricity generated. However, they didn't think that if we tried hard,
Then even the desert will turn green.
No one expected this. A great transformation driver would be the color variations. Since the color of solar panels is darker than the color of the barren desert rocks and brown sand, they reflect less sunlight, absorb more, and thus heat more. When they remain, they cool the ground beneath them. Greater heat and greater vertical temperature difference
This would lead to stronger upward air movement, thus thicker clouds and more rain.
Wind turbines will have a similar effect by mixing the warmer lower air layers and the cooler upper air layers. Where there is moisture, plants will also appear, and the emerging plants will lead to more moisture and rain, and over time the desert will turn green.
…but it will also increase the temperature
The desert was greenNot even once. More recently, from the end of the last ice age until 5,000 years ago, when much of the vast area was covered by grasslands and tree-studded lakes, and inhabited by pastoralists for thousands of years. Thousands of petroglyphs bear witness to the Golden Age. Then due to the weak monsoon winds in West Africa
Within a few hundred years, the huge area dried up completely.
It is perhaps no coincidence that ancient Egyptian civilization emerged along the Nile River – seemingly out of nowhere. If we were to cover half of the Sahara Desert with solar panels, it is not unlikely that we would take the dreary place back to prehistoric times. So what are we waiting for?
The situation is not so ideal. Building on millions of square kilometers and changing light reflection (albedo) would be an intervention with global impacts.
So much so that the average desert greening temperature is one and a half at 20 percent coverage, and one and a half at 50 percent coverage. It will rise by 2.5 degrees Celsius,
This amount of additional heat, distributed globally, would raise the planet's temperature by 0.4 degrees.
This would have catastrophic consequences: the ice in the Arctic would melt faster, air currents and oceans would be rearranged, and ultimately the global climate system would change.
And the whole thing will be ridiculous because it is precisely to avoid emergency scenarios like this that we are aggressively shifting to solar and wind.
Three galaxies would be enough for the whole world
Of course, building the desert on a large scale (and the added bonus, greening) is just a thought experiment; in reality, humanity would never be able to make an investment of this scale either financially or technologically. But how many solar panels would we need if we wanted to cover the electricity supply for the entire population of the desert? Many people have already taken on this dream project, according to one account
With 51.4 billion 350 watt solar panels installed in the desert, the entire Earth could be powered,
The area of solar energy complexes is about 300 thousand square kilometers Three regions the size of Hungary It will cover “only” 3.25 percent of the desert area. This area is smaller than in the thought experiment calculated in millions of square kilometers, but it is not that small either, and if it were not that large, it would likely disturb climatic conditions as well.
Does the sun shine for free or not?
Although the desert seems an ideal location, when all costs are estimated, a giga investment to electrify the entire planet would consume at least half of the global economy's GDP ($105 billion in 2023). It is an unfathomable amount, and it is only possible to estimate the approximate cost.
Although it is not inhabited and there is space, several aggravating circumstances must be taken into account.
- In one of the harshest environments in the world, there is almost no usable infrastructure.
And it's not enough to manufacture, you also have to transport solar panels, building materials, and build the entire network and high voltage cables across sand dunes and rocky ground. For all this, a large number of workers had to be brought to the uninhabited area via non-existent roads.
- Only the most durable and expensive materials can withstand harsh, almost unbearable conditions.
In the desert, the temperature can reach 50 degrees Celsius during the day, and the temperature can drop below freezing at night. Have a blessed day. But non-stop migrating sand dunes and raging sandstorms that bury everything underneath aren't solar gardens' best friends, either.
But even if everything is completed, electricity from the solar power plant will have to be sent to Europe via transmission lines across the Mediterranean.
- However, a power loss of 10-15 percent must also be calculated on lines longer than 3,000 km.
Although Europe is close. On a 15,000 km long line leading to Australia, up to a quarter of the electrical energy will be wasted, which is a really large amount.
No wonder the 400 billion euro investment fund, which aims to produce solar energy in the desert, in this way, Desertec project I stopped twice In recent years due to the significant rise in construction and delivery costs.
However, desert energy is the future
But the construction of the world's largest concentrated thermal solar power plant with a capacity of 510 megawatts has been completed at a cost of $9 billion. Light of Ouarzazate naperőmUgh A complex on the western edge of the Sahara in Morocco, ready to supply Europe with electricity.
Its special advantage is that it can generate electricity even at night,
Because thermal energy is not produced by photovoltaic cells, but by a 500°C brine heated by mirrors, which is first used to produce water vapor, and the steam drives turbines that produce electricity, as is the case in coal-fired power plants. .
However, in December 2023, the world leader in 0-24 hour CSP plants was taken over by another desert complex, the 700 MW CSP plant built not far from Dubai, and is known for its high Standard up to 250 meters solar. A tower named after the local ruler. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum In Solar ParkWhich can serve a city of 450,000 people every day of the year. However, the goal is to achieve at least 4.6 gigawatts (!) of power by 2030.
Solar power plants in the desert are built sequentially, but they are not concentrated in one place, to serve many countries. In the deserts of China, for example, there are two installations consisting of conventional solar cells pumping out kilowatt-hours with a huge output of 3 gigawatts each. In the Saudi desert in the Mecca region a year from now at the end of 2025 With a power of 2 gigawatts However, the emerging solar power plant will likely displace the Chinese if the planned plant is completed 5.5 gigawatts capacity. (For comparison, the four blocks of the Pakse nuclear power plant cover 45% of domestic needs with an output of up to 2 GW.)
We're finally seeing some use for the ever-widening barren seas of rock and sand. Not many people thought that the golden age of scorching, barren, and uninhabitable deserts would one day come. But it seems that the desert has not done that yet.
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