Large-Scale Solar and Wind Farms in Sahara Would Increase Rain and Vegetation

Sci-News.com ^ | Sept 10, 2018 | News Staff / Source

[WKUHilltopper]

Climate change! Oh, the horror!

[Behind the Blue Wall]

Yes and even swampy in places.

[stars & stripes forever]

Large-Scale Solar and Wind Farms in Sahara Would Increase Rain and may increase the number and intensity of HURRICANES in the UNITED STATES.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

If Europe wants to pay for this I say more power to ‘em!

[PeterPrinciple]

Liberals NEVER think in terms of systems. If you introduce systems in to the equation, it leads to the answer that we don’t know much, are not in control and there is a design...…………………..

[Mrs. Don-o]

Doubling the CO₂ would green up the whole contunent.

[wbill]

“In 2017, the global energy demand was only 18 terawatts, so this is obviously much more energy than is currently needed worldwide"

Fair enough. I could buy this.

So, how are they planning to get all this power from Sub-Saharan Africa to, say, Philadelphia?

Not a unique problem. Generation of power is the easy part. Transmission and distribution is the difficult piece. But Liberals don't like to be confused with facts and tough questions.

[robel]

The only models climate change fanatics have been accurate with is the flow of funds in direct correlation to their dire predictions. Although those models have been degrading as the climate models have shown to be extremely inaccurate.

[Pontiac]

Wow, whoever wrote this doesn't’t know much about the Shara desert or solar and wind power.

Solar power requires a relatively clean environment for photoelectric or mirrored steam systems.

The Shara is a very dusty desert. Dust quickly covers everything.

Wind power requires cooling. Generators do generate a substantial amount of heat. The Shara is hot. If the generator can’t dissipate the heat they quickly shutdown or fail. The generators also will quickly fail due to the abrasive nature of the Shara’s very fine sand and dust getting in to the mechanical workings of the generators.

The Shara is a very hostile environment for most anything man made. Anyone who attempts to build anything in the Shara had better build a pilot version of whatever it is first so they can learn from their failure

[Mrs. Don-o]

I believe it was the Greek historian Herodotus who mentioned that North Africa, which had been forested, was by then (~450 BC) a prairie supporting only rabbits and bees (or something like that.)

So it's been getting drier over the centuries.

Except I think, quite recently, it's begun to slightly green up again. Due to more adequate levels of CO₂?

[D Rider]

First show me a climate model that actually works. None of them do.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Israel has the answers. Look at what they’re producing!

[Mrs. Don-o]

Yes, that's what I was thinking of. Thanks.

I think we should shoot for the optimum, 1500 ppm.

Four-fold increase.

Nothing but the best for Mother Earth.

[BitWielder1]

So build it there then.
There is no EPA to defend some rare desert spider.
Just hire enough people to sweep the sand off the solar cells.
Nobody thinks of the cost to build and maintain a power grid the size of a city's to *collect* the electricity.

[ridesthemiles]

Only a Liberal idiot would wish to INCREASE the temperature in a desert......

[alloysteel]

Set up a string of Thorium Molten Salt reactors all along the coastal region of the African countries bordering the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and use them to drive desalination plants, evaporating the sea water and recovering the mineral wealth dissolved in the sea water. The water vapor is released into the atmosphere where it has the multiple effect of COOLING the vast area of the Sahara, and to fall as rain, making a vast increase in the arable land on this continent, and making Africa once again attractive to the vast numbers of migrants who have fled to Europe and elsewhere.

The desert can bloom again.

[jim_trent]

Just an updated “the rain follows the plow (circa 1880’s & 1890’s)” claim.

[GOYAKLA]

Call me when the monsoon starts on our wind farms, in the USA SW, Cali., NM, AZ.

[bagman]

So global energy demand was a mere 18 terawatts. Now, is that energy demand or just electrical energy demand?

A terawatt is a measure of power (energy / time), not energy. I am very wary of those who confuse the two concepts.

The global energy demand is measured in terawatt-hours.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Good post, and points to the correct solution