why can't we use vast areas of desert to generate solar power?

Question

seems like a good idea to me.

Answer 1

We cant find an extention lead long enough

Answer 2

We can, and we're starting to do it in Africa.

In the past it wasn't feasible because there was no way to transport the energy from solar panels in the desert long distances to populated areas. The transmission lines would be too expensive, and the longer an alternating current (A/C) transmission line, the more power you lose along the way.

However, technology for direct current (D/C) transmission lines has advanced to a point where it's becoming cost effective. They lose very little power over long distances, so this idea is becoming a realistic possibility. I forget which African country, but one of them recently built solar panels in the Sahara desert for this purpose. The D/C lines could even be run all the way from the Sahara to Europe. Read the book below for further details.

Answer 3

I'd love to see the Ray mears special programme - Surviving in the Solar Powered Desert.

Answer 4

Sandstorms are the problem. The form of the desert keeps changing after a sandstorm. If you lay solar cells in one area, after a sandstorm it will be gone, either it is blown away or buried under the sand. There are only a few places in the middle east that are inhabited due to these sandstorms.

Answer 5

Compared to capital investment,cost of maintenance etc solar power generated is in small quanity.Since deserts cover thousands of kilometers ,transmission to area of use is practically difficult.Use of solar power for small household use only possible.

Answer 6

We don`t own any deserts and the countries that do are swimming in oil which is what makes them so rich, so they have no incentive to change . Also I understand that the photoelectric cells in solar panels are in short supply world wide.

Answer 7

Sounds like a good idea...but no deserts in UK...so the Solar power stations would have to be probably in Middle east....so imagine that Britain gets all its electricity, and Oil from the Middle East or North Africa.....think it could be blackmail time don't you....I don't like the fact we have to rely on Russia for our gas and Middle East for our oil now......

Answer 8

It has been tried and found to be not operational in the long run due to shifting sand plus sandstorms etc. There used to be a website about it some 5-6 years back but at present I have been unable to find it for you.

Answer 9

They could be and should be, a combination of PV and heat technology could generate very good results.
The cost is high but then we spend much more money on weapons and wars so why not here if it can give us clean energy for at least next 2-3 decades with very less operating costs.

Technically its feasible , financial viability ? possibly yes, govt./company will power to do so - not much as of now.

Answer 10

like the power lines from the dams could be routed close by and the entire state of nevada turned into solar power,afterall, the cities of las vegas are going under

Answer 11

Solar is expensive ! It has a short life span ! It's expensive to dispose of when it's dead !

Go to www.uspto.gov and enter patent number 5,430,333.

There you will see pollution free electric power able to be built to be more than 1000 times that of our largest Nuclear Reactor!

Plant Vogtle, our last Nuclear Reactor makes only 930 megawatts.

The first generation “baby” power plants from this new technology makes 1000 megawatts.

Vogtle cost $10 billion, 30 years ago.

These new power plants cost $2.5 billion in today’s money.

Vogtle is about to be retired, as are all our other Nuclear plants.

All the fueled power plants only have about a 30 life span.

The power plant design you will see at patent office site live well over 100 years.

They burn NO fuel what so ever!

It costs more to demolish a Nuclear plant than to build one new!

The spent Nuclear fuel has a 25,000 year storage problem with no solution yet, and a tremendous cost that defies accurate estimation due to the very long time frame.

Nuclear power has been estimated to cost more $50.00 per kilowatt hour when the demolition and storage costs are applied.

Guess who gets to foot that bill, the tax payer!

Being fuel-less the design you see at the patent office has a cost of about 3 cents per kilowatt hour.

Coal fired power plants make 8 lbs of air pollution to run 100 watt light bulb for an hour.

There are NO cost estimations for the clean up of all that pollution.

We keep seeing in the news about coal miners dieing in cave-ins.

With the high cost of electric power being hidden for so long by our politicians using their abysmally poor judgment to allow this to happen in the first place. Then compounding the problem with their constant lying about it to all of us, and the problem now coming to light despite their best efforts to lie and hide it. We are now stuck with the costs of their abysmally poor judgment after their being “paid” by big power to lie to us about the scope of this problem for decades.

Call all your elected official state, local, and federal. Tell them you want the pollution free electric power you saw at the patent office web site! Tell them to get off their assets and get moving on making pollution free and cheaper electric power happen ASAP!

Or swallow their lies so more until our nation is so polluted our children die younger than ever before. Cancer is running rampant everywhere, it comes from all the pollution our elected officials are allowing to be spewed into “our” environment every day. It time to put pollution into it’s proper place, “THE PAST”!

We now have the technology, we can build it, it’s 100% clean, and the electric power is cheaper than ANY fueled power plant.