If everything that exists has a place, place too will have a place
Don’t think of arid expanses like the Sahara as desolate wastelands. Think of them as near-infinite sources of clean power. In six daylight hours, Earth’s deserts soak up more energy than humanity uses in a year. Now an unlikely consortium of politicians, scientists, and economists from around the Mediterranean has a plan to harness it. “Desertec” would involve hundreds of square miles of wind and solar plants in the world’s deserts, hooked into electrical grids to funnel reliable, renewable, and affordable power to more sun-challenged regions. Planners are hoping to get solar power flowing from North Africa to Europe first. An estimated 1,300 square miles of North African desert could handle 20 percent of Europe’s energy needs by 2050.
