Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona (ESOF), the European Commission’s Institute for Energy Arnulf Jaeger-Waldau expressed a belief that the creation of solar farms in the Sahara desert could produce enough energy to meet all of Europe’s energy needs. With Power generated by photovoltaic cells or by using the sun’s heat to boil water and power turbines, a ‘supergrid’ could transmit electricity along high voltage direct current cables and potentially allow countries to export their wind energy during periods of surplus, as well as import energy from other sources. Since the Sahara dessert receives more sunlight than Europe on average, photovoltaic panels there could potentially generate three times more energy than panels in northern Europe and harnessing just 0.3% of the sunlight falling on the desert could meet all of Europe’s needs. Even though an investment of around €450bn would be needed to get the project started, the proposal brings a fresh lease of life to the dream of using sustainable energy as the main source of power in the future.
Source: Environmental Graffiti
