Posted on 12/07/2007 7:53:14 PM PST by Lorianne
Europe is considering plans to spend more than £5bn on a string of giant solar power stations along the Mediterranean desert shores of northern Africa and the Middle East.
More than a hundred of the generators, each fitted with thousands of huge mirrors, would generate electricity to be transmitted by undersea cable to Europe and then distributed across the continent to European Union member nations, including Britain.
Billions of watts of power could be generated this way, enough to provide Europe with a sixth of its electricity needs and to allow it to make significant cuts in its carbon emissions. At the same time, the stations would be used as desalination plants to provide desert countries with desperately needed supplies of fresh water.
Last week Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan presented details of the scheme - named Desertec - to the European Parliament. 'Countries with deserts, countries with high energy demand, and countries with technology competence must co-operate,' he told MEPs.
The project has been developed by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Corporation and is supported by engineers and politicians in Europe as well as Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Jordan and other nations in the Middle East and Africa.
Europe would provide initial funds for developing the solar technology that will be needed to run plants as well as money for constructing prototype stations. After that, banks and financial institutions, as well as national governments, would take over the construction programme, which could cost more than £200bn over the next 30 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Just wait until the North Africans nationalize the resources and europe is dark and cold.
What idiots.
Brilliant. Give the Moo’s control over your oil AND solar power.
Why not just promise a pony for every little girl and boy while you're at it?
The ultimate NIMBY; just like the prototypical Euro weenie.
From the sound of it, a more practical project would be to pull a large-scale Israel and terraform the entire Sahara.
Truly effective alternate energy plans will disrupt the cash flow to Gore and his cronies (which is a rapidly growing group), and will not be allowed to go further than news releases. Watch in the news reports for the crippling of nuclear and other alternate energy sources.
2 years after they are returned people will be stretching goat skins over the mirrors and living under them.
Yeah, and it has to be bad for the desert rat habitat.
And if the black panels absorb heat as well as light, well, hey, they’ll add to global warming! Can’t have that.
There are several different countries in North Africa, with various potentials for cooperation and/or problems. They will probably by eager to get desalinated water, and be lacking in the technical expertise to maintain the solar arrays, so one hand may end up washing the other.
bmflr
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Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts
Exactly. I thought the cry was for energy independence!?
It took the muslims less than two days to destroy the greenhouses Israel left behind as a gift when they removed their Gaza settlers. You give them too much credit in this case.
Three years after, they'll be bitching about Europeans abandoning them with this technology with no upkeep and asking for another five billion to rebuild it, with another six billion to resettle those who live under them. That's Africa.
They’ll have to lease it [Africa] from China probably
It only takes a handful of guerrilla fighters to screw up the solar panels and the grid connection...and then no juice in Europe. You will need at least 40,000 European troops protecting this solar collection site.
That’s great and look I can shoot hydrogen out of my ass.
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