Free Republic

Across the globe, technology that is designed to generate solar energy could potentially be employed for yet another planet-saving enterprise: Asteroid detection. One scientist at Sandia National Labs has started to get the ball rolling on a theory using a large-scale mirror, and a bit of ingenuity and hope. Sitting just south of Albuquerque is a field of more than 200 large-scale mirrors. These heliostats focus the immense power of the sun on to a 200-foot tower, collecting as much as a million watts of power during the day, but at night, they don’t have a job — they’re just...

A Sun-starved town nestled deep in a mountain valley is soaking up some winter rays for the first time in its history after installing three giant mirrors to reflect light. In a reverse of a classic episode of The Simpsons, the 3,500 residents of Rjukan in Norway are finally able to bathe in the Sun’s light as it moves low across the sky in the winter months. Rjukan, 100 miles west of Oslo, previously endured months of no sunlight every year between September and March, but three giant mirrors – known as heliostats – constructed 450m above the town trace...

The Ivanpah solar plant in Southern California killed 6,185 birds in 2015. That includes burning about 1,145 birds with the intense heat coming off its many mirrored heliostat panels, according to a recent report on the government-backed solar project. An audit of how many birds and bats Ivanpah kills every year found “there were an estimated 2500 fatalities from known causes and 3686 fatalities from unknown causes” last year. Of the known fatalities, nearly 46 percent were killed by the intense, concentrated heat used to generate electricity. Western EcoSystems Technology, the firm auditing Ivanpah, estimated about 1,145 dead birds have...

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Federal taxpayers helped build a $2.2 billion solar plant — now electricity customers are on the hook to keep it running. The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant, a sprawling facility near the California-Nevada border built with billions in federal support during the Obama-era economic stimulus program, is stuck in a costly dilemma. Both the Trump and Biden administrations — along with the utility company that buys its power — have sought to shut it down, saying it underperforms, produces expensive electricity and has been overtaken by cheaper energy sources. But California regulators have refused to allow it...

Spain and Morocco want to build an ambitious crossing over, or under, the Strait of Gibraltar by the beginning of the next decade. In this video, we'll explore the possibility of building a bridge or a tunnel between Europe and Africa and why the 2030 World Cup could be the spark that sets everything in motion.0:00 Strait of Gibraltar Crossing0:32 History of the Strait of Gibraltar 2:37 Why Building a Crossing Makes Sense3:29 Could a Bridge Actually Work?4:31 The Greatest Challenge8:04 An Insane Proposal for a Gibraltar Bridge8:40 A Tunnel Between Continents10:17 Gibraltar's New 2030 TunnelGibraltar's Insane $10B Tunnel to...

President Joe Biden on Wednesday bragged about his administration’s plans to build a solar farm in Africa that U.S. taxpayers are funding a $900 million loan for. Biden’s boast occurred during a speech hosted by the League of Conservation Voters, in which he promoted his administration’s energy and environmental policies, including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a seemingly non-existent railroad from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean and “one of the largest solar plants in the world” in Angola. To fund this solar plant — which is a partnership between the Angolan government, and U.S.-based firms AfricaGlobal Schaffer and...

Energy generation by wind and solar farms could reduce carbon emissions and thus mitigate anthropogenic climate change. A new climate-modeling study, published in the journal Science, finds that large-scale installations of wind and solar farms in the Sahara Desert and the neighboring Sahel region — areas particularly desirable for such farms because of their vastness and lack of inhabitants — would increase local temperature, precipitation and vegetation. ..." “Our study is among the first to model the climate effects of wind and solar installations while taking into account how vegetation responds to changes in heat and precipitation,” Dr. Li said.“Previous...

As part of a broad mission to end extreme poverty worldwide the Obama administration is giving unproven startups millions of dollars to create solar power in Africa. It’s a multi-million-dollar U.S. initiative to inspire entrepreneurs and investors to help bring enough connections so households in sub-Saharan Africa have access to clean, modern and affordable electricity. Uncle Sam will pitch in around $36 million and the money will flow through Power Africa, a program created by President Obama to increase the number of people with access to power in the world’s second-largest continent. More than 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa...

Morocco has turned on its massive solar power plant in the town of Ourrzazate, on the edge of the Saharan desert. The plant already spans thousands of acres and is capable of generating up to 160 megawatts of power. It's already one of the biggest solar power grids in the world, capable of being seen from space. And it's only going to get bigger. The current grid, called Noor I, is just the first phase of a planned project to bring renewable energy to millions living in Morocco. It will soon be followed by expansions, Noor II and Noor III,...

> A few years ago, scientists began to calculate just how much energy the Sahara holds. They were astounded at the answer. In theory, a 35,000-sq.-mi. (90,600 sq km) chunk of the Sahara — smaller than Portugal and a little over 1% of its total area — could yield the same amount of electricity as all the world's power plants combined. A smaller square of 6,000 sq. mi. (15,500 sq km) — about the size of Connecticut — could provide electricity for Europe's 500 million people. "I admit I was skeptical until I did the calculations myself," says Michael Pawlyn,...

As the Line gigaproject continues to grow in the Saudi desert, some new construction details have been announced that highlight the mind-boggling challenge of turning a huge tract of rugged landscape into a futuristic megacity, including its reported use of one fifth of the entire world's currently available steel.To recap, the Line is the key part of Saudi Arabia's Neom project, which is itself part of a larger push to transform the country's predominantly oil-based economy into a tourism-focused one as fossil fuel use is inevitably reduced in the coming years.The plan is for the Line to eventually have a...