How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power

Guardian ^ | December 2 2007 | Robin McKie

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

Just wait until the North Africans nationalize the resources and europe is dark and cold.

What idiots.

[Kozak]

Brilliant. Give the Moo’s control over your oil AND solar power.

[randog]

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.

Why not just promise a pony for every little girl and boy while you're at it?

[Rembrandt]

The ultimate NIMBY; just like the prototypical Euro weenie.

[Terpfen]

From the sound of it, a more practical project would be to pull a large-scale Israel and terraform the entire Sahara.

[kingu]

Here’s what happens - they build it, get power from there for a couple years, the African nations complain, saying the Europeans are stealing their power, the Euroweenie public caves and demands that these stations be ‘returned’ to the African people.

[Rudder]

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.

[Mike Darancette]

2 years after they are returned people will be stretching goat skins over the mirrors and living under them.

[tbw2]

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.

[gleeaikin]

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.

[Kevmo]

bmflr

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Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts

[linuxster]

There's good reason for putting it there,if you disregard any political issues, which no clearly are pertinent.

[aquila48]

Exactly. I thought the cry was for energy independence!?

[AlaskaErik]

2 years after they are returned people will be stretching goat skins over the mirrors and living under them.

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.

[kingu]

2 years after they are returned people will be stretching goat skins over the mirrors and living under them.

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.

[VanShuyten]

I liked the idea of building hydroelectric dams from the Mediterranean to the low spots in the Sahara. That would generate electricity and increase the rainfall in the desert. Opponents said that it would poison the aquifer, but there aren't that many people who would have to be relocated.

[GeronL]

They’ll have to lease it [Africa] from China probably

[pepsionice]

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.

[TheThinker]

That’s great and look I can shoot hydrogen out of my ass.