
Sahara desert project aims to power
half the world by 2050
Dec 14, 2010 - Lin Edwards - PhysOrg.com
A joint project by universities
in Algeria and Japan is planning to turn the Sahara
desert, the largest desert in the world, into a breeding
ground for solar power plants that could supply half
the world’s electrical energy requirements
by 2050.
Image credit: Diginfo TV
The Sahara Solar Breeder Project aims
to begin by building a silicon manufacturing plant
in the desert to transform silica in the sand into
silicon of sufficiently high quality for use in solar
panels. Solar power plants will be constructed using
the solar panels, and some of the electricity generated
will supply the energy needed to build more silicon
plants to produce more solar panels, to produce more
electricity...
Leader of the Japanese team, Hideomi Koinuma from
the University of Tokyo, said while no one has tried
to use desert sand as a source of high-quality silicon
before, it is the obvious choice and will be of high
enough quality.
The energy generated by the solar power plants will
be distributed as direct current via high-temperature
superconductors, a process that Koinuma said will
be more efficient than using alternating current.
He envisages a large network of supercooled high-voltage
direct current grids capable of transporting the
expected 100 GW of electricity at least 500 kilometers.
Even if the grid needs to be cooled with liquid nitrogen,
Koinuma said it could still be cost-competitive.
(High-temperature superconductors operate at about
-240°C.)
The Sahara Solar Breeder Project (dubbed the Super
Apollo Project by Koinuma) is being developed as
part of the International Research Project on Global
Issues by the Japan Science and Technology Agency
(JST) and Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA). The team expects to have to overcome many
problems, including frequent sandstorms, the need
to use liquid nitrogen to cool cables and to bury
them in the sand to minimize fluctuations in temperature,
and so on.
The initial aims of the research will be focused
on tackling the expected challenges and demonstrating
the project’s viability. Training engineers
and scientists from Africa in the entire research
and development process is also a goal of the project.
Another project aiming to harness solar power in
the Sahara was launched last year. The Desertec Foundation
aims to supply 15 percent of Europe’s electricity
requirements by 2050 using high-voltage direct current
transmission lines without superconductors.
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