Sahara Sun 'to help power Europe'
Not really travel related (though you'll want to stay out of the path of the collectors - I believe the phrase is "don't cross the beams"!), but probably of interest.
BBC News article from 2nd November 2009.
Quote:
A sustainable energy initiative that will start with a huge solar project in the Sahara desert has been announced by a consortium of 12 European businesses.
The Desertec Industrial Initiative aims to supply Europe with 15% of its energy needs by 2050.
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Wikipedia article on solar concentrators.
They've been talking about this for a number of years, though now it looks like real financial commitment has been made by the partners in the consortium.
I'm sure security concerns will ensure we can't go anywhere near them though given the size of the Sahara and the relative size of the farms (though they are big), it probably won't impact travel routes much. Keeping the transmission lines safe will probably be "interesting", and I wonder if solar from Africa will be more stable than natural gas from Russia...
Anyway, beats burning coal eh?
Nick.
Last edited by nickt; 3 Nov 2009 at 16:19.
Reason: Added link to http://www.desertec.org/
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