Sahara Sun for Europe

The possibility of effectively exploiting the power of the sun to supply Europe with clean energy seems to be more at hand, even if the project looks complex and the costs are predicted to be very high.

Scientists are in fact calling for the creation of a series of huge solar farms in North Africa countries as part of a plan to increase the share of Europe's renewable energy. Also Arnulf Jaeger-Walden of the European Commission's Institute for Energy, speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona on July 23, said that the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle East deserts would be enough to meet all of Europe's energy needs.
Scientists argue that Sahara desert would be particularly suitable because the sunlight is more intense in that area: solar photovoltaic panels in northern Africa could generate up to three times the electricity compared with similar devices in northern Europe.

The solution for turning this ambitious project into reality would be a new direct current (DC) grid, able to transmit high voltage direct current over long distances without incurring the losses experienced in alternating current (AC).
This new supergrid would in the end benefit also other renewable energy sources, like geothermal and wind energy, whose development is currently limited for being confined near the production areas.
The grid proposal has won political support from both Nicholas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown. However scientists working on the project admit that it would take many years and huge investments to generate enough solar energy from north Africa to power Europe, but envisage that by 2050 it could produce 100 GW, more than the combined electricity output from all sources in the UK, with an investment of around €450bn.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/solarpower.windpower