DESERTEC - major transcontinental renewable energy plan

[a_chap]

Interesting proposal from a company called Xlinks.

Can't see it happening though.

 

[HAL9000]

Interesting. I was disappointed it never took off. But even so Morocco alone wouldn't be enough would it? We need electricity at night, too, which means solar collectors mid Atlantic or in the US?

Only small scale not large.

Two key points from the video

• Host country have to be primary beneficiaries, power for their own country and cash for exporting power.
• Country stability, country like Libya no one is going invest unless its going to generate lots and lots of cash.

If Morocco is sucessful in powering its own country while making cash from power exports, that might generate investment to build solar or wind power for electricity export. But's going to take time, the third interconnect will completed in 2026 (according to some random internet post), perhaps a few years to see if its successful and then perhaps the next power generation/interconnect. If large scale projects take 10 years to complete?? Then the next project, etc.

 

[HAL9000]

Interesting. I was disappointed it never took off. But even so Morocco alone wouldn't be enough would it? We need electricity at night, too, which means solar collectors mid Atlantic or in the US?

one other point, electricity at night. More likely solution in the short and medium term, batteries. One of the great hopes at the moment is a flow battery, they require more space than a lithium battery but this less of a problem for grid storage..

Flow battery - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org