The hottest deserts of the world may be able to help us generate enough clean power for the whole planet. Two German scientists, Dr Gerhard Knies and Dr Franz Trieb, have run their numbers and state that if we cover just 0.5% of the Earth’s hottest deserts with concentrated solar power (CSP) systems, we can meet the world’s energy needs. In addition, the systems byproducts include air conditioning and desalinated water to the same desert regions supporting the CSP sites.

 

CSP systems use mirrors to focus sunlight to heat water or gas traveling or stored in conduits, which in turn powers a generator or turbine. Basically if you’ve used a magnifying glass to burn something with sunlight then you have the basic concept.

 

The scientists propose building them in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East. Not only do these areas have full time sun, but the sunlight is up to three times stronger than most areas within temperate zones. They are proposing a mix of UK wind power, Norway hydro power, and biomass/geothermal power from central Europe to eliminate nuclear and fossil fuel energy sources by 2050.

 

Knies and Treib have compared costs to oil as well, using $50/barrel as a benchmark. They concluded that the CSP system would produce power at the same price, and as large-scale manufacturing efficiency increased for mirror production and system maintenance, the cost could lower the equivalent of $20/barrel. Between 2003 and 2006, oil fluctuated from $25/barrel to over $78/barrel. Another advantage to the CSP idea is steady pricing over time.

 

Perhaps this could be a model for the United States, leveraging the sun of the southwest with wind from other states, combined with hybrid and biofuel vehicles and innovative design solutions to eliminate costly nuclear power and fossil fuels.