Scaling Up Saharan Solar

November 02, 2009

The idea has been thrown around for a while: Let's put a bunch of mirrors--the most ever!--in the desert to provide massive amounts of electricity to faraway places. A newly-formalized consortium is going to do just that, in the Sahara Desert.

Twelve European businesses that form the Desertec Industrial Initiative consortium just signed a pact on Friday in Munich to erect parabolic mirrors on more than 6,500 square miles in the desert. The mirrors will concentrate the sun's rays on giant water containers that will power steam turbines, generating electricity to be transported using high-voltage direct current transmission lines. Tanks containing molten salt will temporarily store excess heat from day. Similar solar projects exist, but this would be the first on such a scale.

The Desertec project plans to provide 15 percent of continental Europe's energy needs by 2050. Several North African countries are interested in joining the consortium and Desertec expects to deliver electricity to local African consumers as well. The technical and financial details of the project, which was first announced two years ago, will be ironed out by 2012 with power deliveries to Europe starting three years later. While I can hardly fathom the crazy financing required, advancements in solar technology make me optimistic that Desertec won't turn out to be a mirage.

Photo Credit: Solar Millennium AG.