Why dont we build giant solar panels in deserts ie Sahara to power the world?
Question:
Answer:
voltage drop is the major problem. were talking hundreds of miles to get anywhere in the sahara.
then where is the power going? tunisia, morrocco, egypt?
its really un-economically viable, as the materials (all environment unfriendly) will cost billions! the world, dont forget is run by big corporations, who are entail backed by multi investors. who's going to invest in this project
1. it will cost billions, and the return will be nothing!
sounds great, where can i buy some shares?
The photo electric cell to be used for generation of electricity is very costly. Then transmission of electricity is another expensive process.
Distribution issues. And the Libyans don't have much of an incentive to let us do that (being oil producers).
Now, putting giant solar panels in space might be an idea. The power could be beamed to earth in microwaves to a receiver station. Only trouble is, we are way way too violent a species to trust with a death cannon in space that could hit anywhere on the planet just by shifting orbit. And (as we are discovering), Earth orbit is a pretty messy place ... lots of debris and meteors and stuff ... which would make the power station too vulnerable.
Basically, in energy production, dispersal is better than the "one big plant" idea. Local, even individual, power generation - by solar or geothermal or wind or whatever - is a great idea, and one which may someday come to be realized, but not while "Amalagamated Power" rules the world.
i like the idea and have heard it before. unfortunately the powers that be make too much money on oil. The disgruntled powers that wannabe (terrorists), would probably destroy them and call them "infidel creations" However, solar panels in freindly nations would work and is working. also solar panels in space would provide far more energy than any on earth. It is being researched i think. The idea is to collect solar power from space panels and beam it down to collectors on earth.
01) ecology of the desert.
02) greed by power companies, oil / petrol companies
03) would blind incoming ufo's and they would get upset, and destroy the planet !, afterall they wouldn't be able to see well enough to find the people they want to abduct, and experiment on, they might accidentally get paris hilton or a pro wrestler and have a real problem, that would lead to an interplanetary conflict !
1. Solar cells are expensive.
2. Solar cells do not provide much power. Tens of thousands of acres of solar cells would be needed to equal one ordinary coal fired power station.
3. The already poor power production is reduced by clouds in the sky (unpredictable) and by dust on the cells. Dusty places, most deserts.
4. They do not work at night so a power station is needed to provide power at night. Look up "spinning reserve".
5. They produce DC which would have to be transformed to AC with some losses so that it can be transmitted over even moderate distances. Loss in transmission even with high voltage 3-phase AC is the reason that power stations are near centres of population.
6. My opinion? Solar cells are good for isolated farmhouses and very small villages to provide electricity at a high capital cost. The running cost is not zero, storage batteries have to be replaced every few years. For larger installations, they are basically a joke.
You will rarely or never hear the proponents of solar cells admit to the amount of land they would have to cover to equal the average coal fired station.
Look up the efficiency of solar cells, the average amount of solar energy falling on the Earth's surface per square meter and the power output of an average coal fired plant. Then do the arithmetic.
More Questions & Answers...