What If We Covered the Sahara With Solar Panels?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ค. 2021
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"lets assume the solar panels are 100% efficient" every engineer watching has a stroke
As an Engineer, I recognize a simplified assumption to be corrected if the back-of-the-envelope calculation says there's a chance.
Me: so the earth won't catch on fire?
Everyone: .....
Bye bye birds
yea i think even the best monocrystalline panels are at around 23% efficiency
These ‘solar’ plants are not like the ones on your house… they use mirrors to focus heat to make molten salt, the salt stays hot for long time, they turn the heat into steam… the solar plant runs night & day once salt is molten…
A big down side is it makes a death ray they kills birds & bugs that fly by. If we line the migration routs with death rays , it will have huge butterfly effect!
As a wise man once said: "easier said than done"
I thought you were the one
Listening to my heart instead of my head
once we put our mind into it, it's very do-able, not saying to cover the entire sahara with panels , but to create enough panels to power the world
Name one thing that's easier to do than say.
@@trvplxrd7075 you found another one but I am the better one
I'm surprised that you didn't mention that since the Sahara Desert is mostly sand, actually it doesn't have a defined surface, and, the winds make it constantly change, hills turning into valleys and vice versa.
Man I learnt something new the sahara desert is mostly sand
They build sky scrapers in Sand
@@It_aint_let_me_put_the_amongus Wait? Deserts are made out of sand? God damnit, I've been trying to build solar paners under water. I mistook them to sonar panels, no wonder my navigation was fucked. Fuck!
@Saif Hope near the coast where ground is more solid. Deep in the Sahara it's just sand. Rocks and sand.
@@zoubeirfaouzi149 they can build solar panels high enough. I live there and there are high buildings it's not that big of a deal. After enough digging the ground start to ne solid.
After the first sand storm, half of the area with solar panels is 5m down under sand.
ok so we add windmills from all the sandy sand
Exactly!
If all desert is covered with panels then how sand will come?
@@j12325 The desert is much bigger than you can cover it
@@38MQ that's why this is assumed,he comsiderd total area
“Turn on infinite money”
Venezuela: now you’re talking
Darc
At least this is actually produces value rather than numbers.
Weimar Germany: catch up
🤣
@@JohnSmith-wx9wj Value to who and at what cost?
Amazing idea. Too bad it won’t happen and the panels will probably be in the sand a day after being installed
At least Morocco does a demo edition
I agree
Edit: why are ppl saying he’s wrong? People, it’s obvious the solar penal’s will go 2 metres up in the air!
why u guys are still replying to me, anyways I saw this comment with 3 likes, and I didn’t think it would react 30k+ likes.
So I just agreed, I wasn’t thinking this guy would get close to what it is now. I thought bc he has a tick, means he wouldn’t blow up. Yet he got 30k+ likes, bc his comment is really funny mediocre humour. :)
Sandstorm
Make them 2 meters in the air
Most of the Sahra isn´t sand, but rocks and gravel, but I was thinking the same thing haha.
Planting solar panels in the Sahara would also mean they'd need to be elevated as well considering that lowered panels could end up covered in sand from one wind storm.
Like building eolic turbines, but instead of a turbine they place a solar panel in it.
Do you think Sahara is a sand desert? Only 15% is sand desert...
@@Antesyd I'm assuming you deleted because you realized that sand gets carried by the winds.
Well, for effective use, the entirety of the Sahara doesn’t need to be covered, just the hottest areas where no life can survive. If the gathered solar energy can converted efficiently, there are a lot of places on the continent that could use the energy to improve the lifestyle of the people living there.
the problem with that is that there's not much infrastructure there to support development and maintenance.
@Marc Kempe- there is life in every corner of the desert. Life is everywhere, always, even the furnace vents of the ocean @ 175 degrees F Life is everywhere it's just, often we're not aware of it or not listening.
absolutely possible. And we can use lifepo4 battery to keep the energy.
But the problem is:
Oil and gas company WON'T let this happened.
Energy Companies need profit
@@yozerizki8136 oil and gas companies are going downhill as far as profits go. Elon Musk has all but ensured that they will be a relic of the past in the very near future. Anyway, as far as solar energy goes, it can still be distributed evenly and effectively so profits will be made, but what is truly important is proper maintenance of the solar panels. If they aren’t working properly, the project is a bust.
In harvesting light energy from the sun, the solar panel uses photovoltaic effects to convert light directly into electricity. It is light, not heat, that generates electricity - and too much heat can actually hinder the electricity-making process.
African Solar Energy Superpower? Also, 60% of the world's GDP seems totally worth it for the energy.
Who needs kyber crystals when we got sun power.
remember the imperials spent >60% of their gdp on the death stars lol
but its's challenging
Its İmpossible though
wow
This guy emphasizes words like there’s no tomorrow
HAHA
@@webbozzz2655 What?
This guy EMPHASIZES WORDS like there IS no TOMORROW
I can’t unhear it now😂😂😂
69th like
What is not realized is that solar Farms are super HOT... I worked at a small area with maybe 500 panels and it was 20-30° Hotter. It could be 100° Outside but that specific solar panel area was 130ish. If it can get that much hotter i couldn't imagine how much hotter the Sahara would get.
you could bake anything just by leaving it in the air
8 Minutes in. They reference it.
Imagine if the world was actually working on advancing its needs instead of competing with and fighting itself?
This idea is 1000% unfeasible
So you do it and stop whining
@@jonsnow2689 Yeah, this one guy should do that. Sure. Big brain solutions right here.
@@dredgenwar2375 Practice what you preach
@@UltraEgo2000 I will. I'm getting an electric vehicle and solar panels as quick as I can (I am currently 17 with no car, just to be clear).
I still like the idea of just putting solar panels on every home. That space is already taken up
The video already addresses the fact that a large part of the Sahara recieves 4x the amount of sunlight than most of northern Europe, making the efficiency by cost of the solar panels more effective. In reality a system like this would only supply electricity to Europe and Western Asia because of a number of issues mainly the tranmission losses and therefore the size of interconnectors to go further... I'm not saying that isn't a solvable problem, just everything else can be completed with current levels of technology!
@@Hileeeee sandstorms my guy
@@joshuagarcia8885 And how much affect do sandstorms have on existing plants such as the ones in Morocco... to me that seems a very simple problem to solve, so what if you have to employ thousands of african labourers to maintain them. Good! Good jobs for domestic workers.
I also didn't even point out the issue with the angle of solar panels on roofs in northern climates further reducing the efficiency of said panels. And the many other problems with local electricity infrastructure across Europe.
@@Hileeeee Sandstorms hit harder in other areas of the desert. You would be hard pressed to find a plant in such areas.
@@joshuagarcia8885 Nowhere is perfect, rooftop solar has to contend with falling leaves, snow... etc
All I'm suggesting is that purpose built solar farms in high solar regions is a better solution to the need for large and increasing electricity needs is better than "just putting solar panels on poeples homes".
Many people neglect that most countries electricity grids are built based on a 'tree and branches' type design where energy flows out from a few large power stations and is spread out into communities, grids are designed based around that and not around many smaller "power plants" (panels on peoples roofs). Introducing new large energy sources and upgrading existing infrastructure is easier than reengineering infrastructure.
Having large production plants also means systems can be implemented to maintain efficiency of producting unlike they can with many on a smaller scale and also production can continue into the evening when consumption is at its highest (molten salt based solar), as described in the video.
I can see a solar punk story called “The Glass Continent” where several cities are made across the Sahara and everyone is insulated in glass domes with unlimited air conditioning. Utopia has arrived!
I would watch that black mirror episode XD !
@Brupcat probably just a massive company charging too much for energy. Pretty much how it is now
😂
@Brupcat the catch is theres only one thermostat and it can never be changed.
do it
You forgot about power transmission losses. A 360kV power line will lose about 15% of power per 1,000km. So to send electricity from Sahara to the US, Japan, or Australia you'd lose 85% of the power. With such huge distances you'd also need many transformers on the way, which waste even more power. So you'd be lucky if the US would receive 5% of the initially generated power. These losses are another problem for putting solar panels on deserts. Because they're usually far away from big cities which require the most electricity.
All the people who are pouring in the problem statements are actually contributing in making this project a success. Great job guys post more negatives which can take place in this project so a better and robust Risk management plan can be created to make it a success.👍👍🎉
It could never be made a success, there are massive issues with it that they never addressed.
Suuuuuuure, we live in a world where hating something equates with that something being successful. Suuuuuure.
I like how he says "now you're probably wondering how solar panels work," as if he's going to explain it, then advertises his sponsor and leaves you in the dark
Sun -> Panels -> Energy
(With some science stuff)
I don't need to know how it works, I just need to know that it does.
@@scotth6814 nobody needs to, but some people want to
Murica
@@Bigmeatlover perfectly said
"North Africa becomes fertile for farming"
Yeah, but in order to farm the now green land, you have to remove the panels covering the land.
No, not really
Also the moisture would create clouds, blocking more light to the solar panels
Actually the Densely populated areas in North Africa are fertile and agricultural
@Arawashi Pilot Oniiko that’s an insult?
not really. panels can be placed on towers. and spaced to allow sunlight through. add an intelligent irrigation system and the shade provided by the panels would provide a growing space. not your typical field farming. but perhaps green houses.
But wouldn't all the dust on the panels block them from accepting as much energy? Cos the wind storms there would have them covered the same day theyre installed
They would probably clean it when they get blocked just like u have to do to a regular one
Wendover Productions covered this topic and brought up the good point that there are very few routes to get the electricity from the Sahara to Europe and Asia. Upgrading the existing infrastructure would be quite expensive as well.
A man once said "Let us go to the sun" to his friend. His friend replied "Are you crazy? It is too hot, we will die!" The man then said "No you dummy, let us go at night".
okayyy?
I am not seeing the problem, what's actually the issue here?
@@paracetamol256 there is no issue, I mean I always visit the sun at night
@@paracetamol256 its a joke
@@maten3315 what's a joke? I mean this makes sense yeah? At night when the sun's out we can plan an expedition. The NASA guys should think about this.
>covers entire Sahara with solar panels
>Refuses to elaborate
>Leaves
**Inserts Gigachad.jpeg**
virgin .jpeg vs chad .png
That's how Elon musk would propose this project
trilionare grindset
solar energy sigma
"Raises global temperature causing greater damage"
I'm supposed to be looking up a "how to" for changing my water heater, but I'm just in my basement watching this 😆
Haha. Welcome to TH-cam! I am supposed to be working on a project... 😆
So... Did you eventually learn what you needed?
The new water heaters all hooked up! 💪 Now I've been putting off fixing the water damage I caused while switching it out 😂
The sand dust would cover them in few days and their efficiency will be lowered to 0
but don't you think that if someone went the length to cover the sahara desert in solar panels, that they would design the solar panels to be self-cleaning...
@@VikramSingh-xz3fd There exists no self-cleaning system that can do that.
@@libertyprime69 this whole video is make believe lmfao, why not add an imaginary self cleaning system
5:37 For those wondering why are they arranged in a sunflower pattern, its because the sunflower pattern follows Fibonacci sequence and the useful part is that arrangement doesn't allow the shadow of one panel to cast on other panel
underrated comment spotted!
what does the fibonacci sequence have to do with it
@@AlmondChocolateMilk still fail to see why
Nice nice
@Karosnikov Well, no kidding
Though it probably will happen at some point in our future, the very act of constructing infrastructure into the heart of the hottest zone in the Sahara would require the road and construction crews to be equipped with what would probably have to be formerly used NASA space suits and massive water trucks. The heat and direct sunlight in the Sahara is almost otherworldly, especially as temperatures and UV rays only get more and more intense with each passing year. Working in the hot zone of the Saraha will eventually feel more like the surface of mercury than it does the surface of earth, the workers will need thermal and UV shielding and continuous hydration to work under sustained conditions.
Once the infrastructure is in place and the solar plant is operational, this would no longer be necessary, as workers could be flown in via helicopter or plane in regulated shifts like an oil rig (or you could construct a bullet train with all the power the plant produces), but the building of the infrastructure alone would be an incredible feat of human engineering, innovation, and endurance that would last many years and billions of dollars to accomplish.
That being said... if we ever hope to one day build something like a Dyson Sphere or a massive Solar Sail.. the Sahara's hot zone would be an excellent place to test and innovate the technology.
I like this
Who will provide the Silicons. 🤔🤔
Build it at night?
@@ThePretender94 GENUIS
@@ThePretender94 GENIUS
Didn't expect you would end this educational clip with a commercial. Unbeautifully post.
The issue is that power doesn't store well. It's also difficult to transport over distances, there's too much energy loss. That is why we don't have panels all over the deserts in California to power the rest of the US. The energy depletes over distances.
There is an example of high voltage line in Kazakhstan, it is around 400km and it transfers 1150 kV
Generally speaking, you don't want to put all of your power resources in one single area. It simply makes it too easy in a conflict for an opposing power to completely take out your entire grid.
They would lose their power to
@@DaRKWizaRdGaming0 no... Just look at what Russia is doing with their natural gas and oil supplies.
@@nyquist_control yes. They are decoupling from the rest of the world. They are saying no to a one world govt and that’s a good thing.
@@nyquist_control You mean how the US pressured their allies to put unreasonable sanctions on Russia so now the cost of oil and other commodities has gone up for a war that the US started 10 years ago? Consider the fact that Russia wasn't encroaching on territory, it was defending itself from secret biolabs that the US / NATO was funding, which is ironic considering that Ukraine isn't a part of NATO and it was a soviet country until about 10 years ago when it flipped 180 degrees due to WEF funding. Russia isn't innocent, they allied themselves with the Clintons and other bad actors as proven via Hunter's laptop but they had the right to defend themselves when their neighbor was threatening to release bio agents. The story gets a lot more deep but what you see on the news is disconnected with reality and it's a shame that there are so many people who believe in that crap.
@@DaRKWizaRdGaming0 He’s saying it would give North Africa all the power to shut off the worlds power when ever they feel like it
When thinking about having the whole world’s source of electricity in one spot I can’t help to think about how crucial security would have to be for it (Hackers, terrorists, etc.).
A hacker would prob try to stop terrorism cause you know they need electricity
@@Gameferret16191 I mean as a hacker imagine literally being able to hold the entire world hostage, would be pretty cool
One spot that is larger than the US. If you decentralize it a both shouldn't be an issue.
If it is owned by one company we would have another issue too
@Peter Evans You wouldn't connect all and use multiple transfer cables.
Quick question. Because the solar panels absorbing heat would terraform the Sahara. Would coloring the Sahara darker have the same effect? We could drop some sort of paint or material from planes, similar to how wildfires are put out, to color the Sahara to a color that would absorb more heat, in turn causing the same positive feedback loop that covering the Sahara in solar panels would have.
I was scared he wouldn’t talk about the heat produced. Glad he did
"We've filled up the Sahara with solar panels. What happens now?"
War. War happens now
Can you image the target that would be for a terrorist or hacker organization?!? Possibly crippling the entire world's energy source?!? Put all the world's eggs in one tempting basket. Can you image the political power the land owners would have? I don't think that power would be relinquished that easily by other countries.
@@arthurpendragon3000 Scatter the panels across the Sahara, hackers already target power grids, benefitting nations must provide for security.
@@pbase36 I just think that nations have a lot of difficulties working together when not under extreme conditions. This project can be done but I am not optimistic it would go smoothly and not have a host of political problems that could possibly tear it apart. I tend to have a pessimistic view of humanity being able to adequately work together.
@@arthurpendragon3000 the biggest terrorist organisation in the world is the United States government. Looks like the Sahara desert needs some "democracy"
Yep. War never changes.
"We would produce so much power we would never be able to use"
Chinese Bitcoin miners: Hold my truckload of RTX
Chinese Bitcoin miners do be like "hold my truckload of RTX" now that the Chinese government is clamping down on crypto and the miners are all dumping their GPUs as fast as they can.
@Tanjiro Kamado I hate the miners because I have to play at 60 fps instead of a good graphics card
2nd place? Hmm. I wonder how far I have to scroll to see the " Am I a joke to you?" comment.
@Tanjiro Kamado no buddy, thats scalpers (i dont mean any disrespect to you)
@@HermanvanGelder lol
'Learn something new everyday at 20% off' got me there
Magnificent video. Well done! ♡
Some of you guys have smooth brains, did any of you ever consider that we could get raid shadow legends to sponsor the project and already have all the needed money
@@EpicCaliChef I was thinking the same thing 😂😂😂😂😂
good point
Underrated Lmao.
51.4 trillion? Man, that's a *brilliant* amount of money.
Gotta check under ..like maybe...40-45 couch cushions to find that kinda money
Almost enough money to buy at least 3 Toyota Corollas
@@Dee_Snuts27 or a nice house in California
@@CoreRealm or a decent apartment in NYC
@@Dee_Snuts27 maybe enough to buy an apartment in San Francisco...with 3 roommates.
Video was super entertaining & provided some solid information. The only thing I wish was mentioned was the cost the world is paying for its energy yearly. That would provide a great comparison point to see if plan is truly cost effective
Funding the project would be crazy and hard to organize in such a humid area
"Assume that we turned on infinite money"
*Let's Game It Out has awoken!*
But is there a limit?
ah, i see. now let's play a game i call: HOW MANY LGIO FANS CAN I FIND ON THE INTERNET?
@@AirMadeKat me
Hey there, is Josh.
Only if we're Earthling, one planet working towards the same goal.
You’ll need lots of silver. The project would require more than the entire mined supply for years. This would push the price up and also the cost. I suppose someone calculated this.
I would be interested in these calculations (and the other raw material calculations as well).
@@sorenwintherlundbys me too! Just so you know, the amount of silver mined each year is about 800 million ounces, but it’s been declining since 2015, it was previously about 950. An additional 100-200 million ounces is available due to melt/recycling. Currently solar accounts for about 100 million ounces a year. It’s not growing as fast as new solar because manufacturers are trying to minimize silver usage, it’s known as “thrifting”. Anyway, there’s no surplus, in fact we have been whittling the supply down these last couple years. If a massive amount of solar panels were to be ordered, it would cause a huge price surge. And FYI: Electric vehicles use 2-4x the amount of silver as internal combustion cars, which will also be taxing supply. usage for all vehicles is currently about the same as solar, but it’s about to grow drastically. That’s my contribution. Tell me anything you think I’d like to also know!
Don't forget the glass needed. If sand is needed to make the glass, then they're in for a shock when they realise that there is an ever increasing shortage of appropriate sand for that endeavour. And if you think you could just use desert sand, think again... not as easy.
It’s free. People just sticked prices on things.
@@lavh4406 thats just ignorant everything needs a price or else everything is worthless and if everything is worthless then whats the point of achieving something if u gain nothing from if u work at mcdonalds and the food is free then u dont get paid then whats the point of showing up
On price per panel you have to imagine that the price would actually be closer to the lower end because of the large quantity they'll needs. The more you order the cheaper you can get them for.
Honestly the Perimeter sounds like the best course of action. especially for now and built upon later as needed. Also would need to be protected against terror/military campaigns
This video took me on a ride
"oh that seems like a bad idea"
"hey no this is a GREAT idea"
"wait no bad bad bad"
"hang on.. but it would be so great"
"ok definitely no bad idea"
Like most things in science, its complicated
Anything you do on continental scale will change environment. And any change to environment will kill a lot of species (because they are adapted to the current environment).
and then some terrorist group blows up the main delivery lines.
It is feasible to do the new Mexico model and be 100 percent renewable
@@YashTrivedispaceport6492 not really, for a lot of reasons it's much better to spread them around the globe than to put them in one place. First of all - power lines have loses, the larger the distance between panels and the consumer - the more energy is lost to heat. Second issue - we don't have battery technology good enough to run whole world through the night from energy stored in the day. So we need to spread the cells in such way that always half of them are where sun is. Third issue is heat - solar panels increase heat where they are (because they reflect less sun), and they work less efficient if there is too much heat where they are. So it's not good to put too much of them in one place cause they interfere with each other.
Ideally we should put solar panels in a line around the equator and move energy vertically from that line to each country :) Even better if we could move that ring into orbit and beam the energy directly to consumers :)
imagine being a soldier/security guard having to guard the cables from terrorists. Doesn't sound like a fun life
its a boring life but some people don't mind it.
Ai sentry bots?
@@Ski3HigH even if possible, too expensive
@@Ski3HigH "Sentry going up"
And this is I prefer local nuclear plants vs solar arrays that are 5000 km away
two key problems with the idea of even just the new mexico sized solar farm (the farm that could provide all the electricity currently used by the entire world), which are not, at least directly, about money:
1. wind and sandstorms. while there are basically no clouds in the sahara, there is wind, and there are sandstorms which could absolutely bury any solar panels.
2. connecting: while you could absolutely build power cables to send this electricity to europe, africa, and asia, there might be some difficulties getting it to any part of the world not connected by land to the source, such as australia and the americas. the engineering involved with getting the generated power across significant bodies of water could cause some serious issues. and then there are some places which would likely pose additional engineering challenges, such as hawaii.
the main advantage of fossil fuels over other energy sources is that they are easy to transport away from the source. and then extract the energy closer to where you need it. this could also theoretically be done with nuclear power, but probably shouldn't be, for obvious reasons. meanwhile, for solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, and other such renewable energy sources, you need to convert it to electricity or some sort of storage at the location where you harvest it. perhaps a sort of battery ship could be used to transport this power to the rest of the world, but that would depend on having a good way of efficiently loading and unloading said power, and minimizing losses. I wonder what would be the most effecient way of getting electricity generated by solar panels in the sahara to someplace like hawaii.
some ideas:
battery ships (would probably first need to be designed and built, but I wonder how quickly you could then transfer the stored power off of the ship, so as not to leave the boat stuck in the port longer than necessary. might require some serious infrastructure developments)
power cables (might have problems with resistance at such lengths)
lasers and fiber-optic cables, paired with some sort of photocell generator (no clue what the efficiency of power transfer would be with this, if it is even possible...)
Nice video my friend 😮
“Let’s just assume that we’ve turned on infinite money”
I feel attacked
:-) While as a gamer, i totally appreciate your comment, as a critical beeing, id have to tell you : Tis would be easily possibly, because, well money cheat is already activated, but Half GOd Mode, is the defaut setting, for the handful of people , that OWN HALF OF OUR SHIT.
@@FeanorRocky uhh.. okay?
Hmm…I guess u could say…
*”That’s no moon, that’s a space station…”*
@@acertainkirakuin He makes a good point. The problem isn't that there's not enough money... the problem is that those who have most of that money don't want renewable energy because many of their fortunes are built on fossil fuels. Investing that money into a NM sized solar energy plant would be a huge boon to 99% of the population, but the 1% of people holding the amount of money it would take to do it would be sacrificing their hold on their massively lopsided share of the world's wealth. They'd rather spend that money on lobbyists supporting legislation that forces the continued use of sub-par, inefficient, and dirty services and products they provide and blocking new more efficient and clean products or services from improving lives and moving humanity forward.
That control is their infinite money cheat.
@@davepeesthepool bad reasoning. maybe We use fossil fuels because it's more efficient, reliable,and last longer than renewable energy. You know those solar panels and windmills don't last that long compared to traditional fuels and are not even that much greener when you take into account the production. And do you understand that the 1% is millions of people. do you think They all know each other and agree on everything? And if the 1% is so greedy why wouldn't they pursue renewable Energy if it's better than traditional Fuels to make more money?
I have a better one, what if we painted everything above the Arctic circle all white?
It's a good one.
What colour are you going for the bottom half ? 🤔
Epic
To reduce ice melting because white reflects light?
wow. thanks mr president
As one of the youngest architects and engineers in SA this blows my mind😎👏...
Quick question is the solar energy course a short one or long and is it part time or full time
Better than a “what if” Star Wars Fan fic.
Who’s cleaning them? You’ll need several small armies cleaning it daily.
robots powered by the energy produced by the panels
Give them window wipers
Before the project starts, employ people to vacuum the sand. Bam! Problem fixed.
@Apistotle Stonker lol… just keep in mind, anything that becomes somewhat valuable will end up having “several armies killing each other for”
Well I guess that’ll fix their unemployment issues
To clean the sand off, each solar panel would need to be attached to a robot arm. The robot arm would need to flip the solar panels upside down regularly to shake the sand off. You would definitely need some robots to clean those panels. No human is going to work there.
Helicopter blades would do the trick quick....wait bad idea. That would just coat the other panels, unless it was organized like lawn care workers with leaf blowers. I've seen helicopter pilots do cool stuff. So maybe?
@@bigthing75 yeah so you want save fuel and restrain pollution with solar panels but use more fuel and add more pollution with helicopters... Genius 2k21 !
@@kiraxxxxxxxxx electric cars use some non renewable resources
Ever heard of windschield wipers? I've heard they work.
Indians would work there lol.
Great video, but another factor for building solar farms on the edge of the Sahara is to lower the distance the electricity needs to be transmitted. Transmission infrastructure is expensive too, as well as having a limit to amount and distance energy can be transmitted.
Right of the bat, I can think of a problem similar to solar panels usage in Mars: dust storms. Sand would need to be constantly cleaned, as the sand would mess up light reception
Let's remind everyone that a Sahara sized solar array would also become the greatest no fly zone for birds ever.
I doubt many birds fly over the Sahara anyway.. lack of food and water even before the solar panels decimate them
The concept of give and take.
Who can say no to free fried bird? Place some tubs of vegetable oil in the sun and come back a few times every week for a fried delight
@@bloodiedjeffbezos1013
DON'T LET THE KFC CORPORATION INVEST IN THIS.
It would be a no fly zone for humans too. Imagine the reflected heat instantly igniting a plane's fuel tanks.
The maintenance job for panels scattered across Sahara is gonna be tough xD
imagine your boss saying: "panel no. 47 981 402 801 is throwing a fault code, go check it out
unemployment rates at an all time low. rates of death due to overheating astronomically high
ye but then almost nobody could get a job
@@slipknotfan2217 panel at x and y 10008, 10679
Especially the dust on the panels
I’m so happy my country is doing this!! 🇲🇦❤️
"save the earth people" are ignorant. They don't realize that it takes a MASSIVE amount of pollution to manufacture/produce solar panels and solar fans. For every one that's manufactured, it uses the same amount of pollution as a regular sedan uses in 2.4 years. Sssooooo.....to just break even, if the US made this many to cover the entire Sahara, it would take about, 400 plus years to just break even with the pollution amounts. Lmao.
You're moroccan?
The other thing that a lot of these solar energy enthusiasts don’t take into consideration is the ramp up of electricity usage especially as electric cars are becoming the only manufactured cars in alot of countries. When do most people charge they’re electric cars? At night when the solar plant isn’t producing any power.
actually solar panels can store energy so nighttime wouldn’t be a problem but i agree there’s a lot of problems with this idea
One dust storm and you'd be out there cleaning billions of panels. It would be an up keep nightmare
Self cleaning raised panels
just install windshield wipers
@@Merchaant we are talking about a huge dust storm that can swallow a whole city man
@@barryfugotomo Just install windshield wipers
FLEX SEAL
Chad with no roads in the northern half of the country:
*I'm just built different*
Chads kind of a Chad ngl
maybe cuz their nothing in north to go to why build road to go no where lol
Chad is so Chad that no roads lead to Chad
⚾ SERCH ADITYA RATHORE, HE ALSO MAKES INFORMATIVE CONTENT LIKE REAL LIFE LORE⚾
@@tarokui Every one else in the world is a virgin, Chad is protecting its population of Chads from the power-hungry virgins
Wait until sandstorms hear about your idea 🤣
The loss of sun reflectivity would cause dramatical albedo drop to a level where we would se a netto global overheating rather than a cooling of earth, despite an opportunity to produce less Co2.
"UNLIMITED POWER!!!"
Emperor Palpatine.
The Dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities that some consider unnatural..
Ultimate power!
What if we covered the Sahara Desert with Darth Vaders?
Until the panels find the dark side
Solar Panels: "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."
Cover the sun in solar panels. Imagine how much energy we’ll get!
Not on the night side of the sun though!
Hey yea! And run a cable to earth
👍👍
look up for dyson sphere :)
Dyson sphere :>
Hmm, Probably about as much as we get now. Oh, no, less because the panels are not 100% efficient. Also the light would be dimmer.
Imagine the amount of maintenance that those solar panels would require. You'd need an entire country, millions of people fully dedicated to that.
Could be a Mars colonization strategy to cover the land in solar panels? Feeding power to exsisting colonies and slowly terraforming?
2:33 Morocco isn't going to sell surplus energy to Europe. It's the opposite, Europe built this energy station in Morocco and it will sell some surpluses to Morocco for a hefty price.
It's an unfortunate fate of all the underdeveloped countries that do not have their own hi-tech production.
No europe invested in the project. As did golf countries. The tech was provided by EU, mainly spain for btp and germany for the panel tech and electricity tech. The tech itself was experimental thats why Morocco used 3 different models (CSP, CSP tower, PV). The energy is being used in Morocco although the CSP tech didnt prove to be cost effective enough and thus the excess energy cost is being sibsidised by the state (through MASEN).
@@Venus-ky7gz if you invest in a company you own a portion of it.
Awesome!
This is wrong
There would also be the challenge of replacing them every 20 years or so.
Assuming they spent 20 years placing all of the solar panels they could in theory just replace them in the path that they first placed them not counting ones that need maintenance just randomly
The true reason why this isn't a thing is very simple: It costs money and africa doesn't have it. Why would western powers want africa to get rich anyway?
Bruh, they will be covered in sand within a few hours, solar panels need to be cleaned and that alone would cost a couple 100 billion more dollars
@@randomorange6807 but hey, more jobs
@@KiLLJoYTH-cam the western dont wnt any other country to get rich
it all depends on how they construct the solar panels.
if you have them at ground lvl. you can not use the are for other things.
if you put the solat pannels in 2 meters hight. the ground under will be cooler. and maybe also plant vegestabels under the solar panels.
but it would also be a very good idea to make some 3 km high mountains, that will condense the huid in the air. and rain will fall on the mountain
could you take a percentage of the output and run some sort of one-per-panel fan-system, to keep them sand free?
Humans : cover all Sahara desert in solar panels
Sun : dies
Sun: It would be a real dick move to die right now...
American be like
What
@@65firered hmmrphhh *dies*
if the sun died we would die as well so it wouldnt really matter
“Immediately”
This would be so awesome but “immediately switch” is short sided.
Working in construction, I know that the instillation of anything in the middle of nowhere is a challenge. This would take decades unfortunately.
Immediately in a relative sense.
About ten years for the awesome Chinese, they would probably plant trees all over the place
@@ndrsg3013 the chinese are busy working on their nuclear fusion reactor so it's ready to run in 2035 ish, I doubt they would even waste a second on solar energy.
That's why they should start from the edges and work their way in.
hghhg
It is not the solar panels that are expensive, but the means for energy storage. Currently, it is not possible to efficiently store solar energy on a large scale.
I love and hate technology, makes me wish I could live forever to see it all but I'm just a blip in time.
Sad times.
The Sahara desert is like a slow motion undulating sea in continuous motion.the logistics of keeping the panels above the sand and clean would be staggering.
And how long does a solar panel last in a sand blaster.
And don't forget the amount of security you would need, in that part of the world. The area around the Sahara has been in almost permanent conflict for decades. Everybody and their mum, would be attacking these solarpanels all the time. So you would never get any stable power supply from that system.
Its mostly a rock desert. Didnt you see the pictures?
@@hieatus1039 don’t you have google earth....he said the entire Sahara desert. And the whole region is subject to sand storms rock or not.
@Uzi Khan So you don't think all the war lords and other criminals down there, who wants to keep people in poverty, would try to destroy something that would bring prosperity to the people? What about "Al Shabaab" "Al Qaeda", "Boko Haram"? None of them allow modern technology. They want people to live in the stone age. They would attack before the system was even build. Security is an issue in Africa.
And no!, I'm not against a project like this. I think it would be super cool if it could be made. But we need to be realistic. People don't run away from Africa for no reason.
@@RandomUser6947 give thoses people free energy and many konflicts will just disappear
because one problem is land to life in and with free energie the can settle in regions that are have to life in because of heat
just take away one problem in people live like money for energy and give them a oportuntiy to do something else
if you have free power you could plan mass projekt other then just solar plants in sahara like deep mining for gold platin titan
the nation with free unlimited power it the nation that can deal this small problems like terror organisations or war lords
just buy another nations protecton like the continet of EU or america
free unlimited power is like a holy grail and nations will so every thing to protect it for even mass genocide on heligion terrorists
western nation have crushed other nations and organisation for lesser things than that...
Sand grains: I am gonna end this man's whole career
Just slap some windshield wipers on them
I hate sand. It's coarse, rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere.
@@gregthorne4292, is that you, Anakin?
dead fucking meme
@@polipix_ not as dead as all those younglings Anakin killed
Big parts of the amazon rain forrest would die off because the sahara desert sand that feeds it, would get blocked.
More than ten years ago i visited a space agency in germany and asked the same question, why no solar panels in the sahara? and they told me that it's not possible to transfer the electricity from there to central europe.
Cables didn't change since those days as far as i know, did they?
"Let's assume the panels are 100% efficient"- Thermodynamics got shot on the face.
“Turn on Infinite Money”
German Hyperinflation: Hold my Lederhosen.
lol
Hey it worked for Greece ..... shit .... wait a min
Hold my Reichsmark
Hold my DAS BOOT!!
Hold my beer
One problem: Sand.
There are literally entire pyramids buried in the sand yet to be rediscovered.
How do you know lol
You'd have to sandproof the panels, and elevate them quite a ways above the sand
Sahara is mostly a rock desert, sand isn't such a big deal
Eeeeeeeee
@@hokorikera do you know how quickly the sands shift. You could fall asleep one night in an open flat area of the desert but wake up to a huge sand dune in front of you
I'm missing the distinction between different solar power systems. The biggest is between CSP ( concentrated solar power, itself several different systems) and PVs (photovoltaics, ie. solar panels).
I gather that most of the actual installations are CSP, not panels.
Could you go more into details about the advantages and dis advantages of the different systems?
You mentioned electricity generated, but it would have been cool to do a hypothetical situation when everyone will have to drive electric cars in the future, and how much electricity that would use up, and then how big of an area of solar panels we would need (at 30% efficiency) to cover all that.
Interesting synopsis, but you’re leaving out two of the most important aspects:
1. What’s the environmental cost to produce all of those solar panels, and how long will they last?
2. How would you keep the PV surface clean so they actually produce the max output they’re capable of?
@The Big and how much bigger would the array have to be to power a fan on every panel, and what would be the material cost and damage to the environment to produce all of these fans?
@The Big oh really? So, those solar panels will last forever, huh? And the fans too? Solar panels don’t even have a lifespan long enough to pay back their initial cost, let alone offset all of the carbon emissions/pollution from the required fossil fuels to mine, refine, manufacture, transport, install, run, and dispose of them at the end of their lifespan.
compressed air blowing on the panels, mark rober has done it on his solar panels
@The Big That's not how energy generation works buddy, you can't have a machine powering the very thing that makes it function, and then tap into that. If that were the case then we would've solved the energy crisis by now. Not to mention heat dissipation and wear, along with the sand producing micro-scratches along the solar array. There are many issues that need to be dealt with before creating a solar farm in the Sahara.
number 2 isnt a problem, with enough energy anything is possible
Wanted: Professional swiffer operator. Must like working outdoors.
Bring your own sunscreen.
More "what if's" than my thoughts when hitting the snooze button in the morning.
Besides the ecological impact, this completely ignores the fact that there is such a thing as night and that we cannot store the electricity that is needed and cannot be produced when it's night time in the Sahara.
"Lets assume we turned on infinite money"
*Cities Skylines has entered the chat*
Mr Beast also entered the chat
Lets Game It Out has entered the chat
There's people that live in the Sahara, who've never seen a cloud. That's wild.
Most people that "live in the Sahara", die
@@PunchmadeQuakez as with all people all around the world. What's your point?
@@PunchmadeQuakez almost all living people born on this earth die on it(same vibe)
@@defenseoftheaxies4553 the Sahara desert is more likely to kill you than other places is his point
@@PunchmadeQuakez they also were most likely born at some point
I think a massive retractable sunshield solar panel array system in space would be a far better idea. A constellation of 20-30 sattelites that can open a huge (50ft diameter) sunshield that abosorbs energy just like a solar panel, which is transferred to the sattelite that stores the energy into an attached pod. Once the attached pod is at 100% capacity, it is ejected from the sattelite and at precicely the same time every day when it reaches a specific coordinate, it enters the earth's atmosphere and guides itself to a landing site (much like SpaceX boosters do).
It's wild, but I mean the concept sounds doable and it wouldn't affect earth's ecosystems. In theory it would be unlimited renewable energy if the infrastructure was built to sustain the process. Each country could build or lease their own array, so it would be much harder to sabatoge another nation's energy supply.
And of course there would need to be defense capabilities.
Anyways...
It would immensely change weather patterns and I’m betting not in a good way…
Let’s save this idea until our sun is infected with Astrophage
What's that?
@PC JUNK exactly what I thought
@@Dylan-bc2po It's a reference to the book "Project Hail Mary"
PHM?
What if it already is? :o
"Let's just assume we turned on infinite money"
Jerome Powell enters the chat
Very clever!!
Eeeeeeeeee
IRS enters the chat.
@@7xr1e20ln8 IMF has entered the chat
IRS has left the chat
Who?
we were discussing the power outages and gas car ban in STEM class yesterday and I just realized that this could solve not only the problem of power outages but also the gas car ban problem. (kinda the same issue) basically the government of California wanted a gas car ban by 2035 which means that they have to have only electric powered, hydrogen powered, or hybrid cars. (a mix of the two) by 2035 but the government also asked for them to stay away from plugging in electric cars due to power outages so the Californians had no choice but to keep gas cars but this SPIS (solar power in the sahara) project could solve the whole entire problem.
I remmeber watching your videos when you had 100k subs lol
"Let's just assume that we turned on infinite money"
*Sweet Home Venezuela*
XD
*sweet home Lebanon*
Eeeeeee
LMAO
tiny brain moments
Moroccan here. Feels good to see something positive about my country 😍😎😎🇲🇦🇲🇦
Me too! It's also sad that it's 2021 and Europe is still not done stealing from Africa. Now they also want our sunlight 🙃
Morocco is great.
@@heyitsfadoua where just borrowing the sunlight, sun light causes heat and if we take enough sunlight it would end global warming.
@@kgsniper4850 I don't think it works like that but yeah there is enough sunshine for everyone
@@heyitsfadouaI was joking a little, have a good day and goodnight.
"Erik,we have enough banana farms already,stop placing banana facilities please,im trying to get a paragon."
huge mega farm can only produce as much as a single diesel turbine lol I also like how they measured in megawatts and not kilowatts as you should just to make it sound bigger then it is.
mega is 1000 time larger than kilo, just by that fact I can vouch that you don't even know high school lvl science.