Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Solar power from the Saharan sun...

... that's the new magic silver bullet being proposed for Europe (see here). It's a seductive thought, but there will obviously be problems. One of those has to be security - this would be a major power generator sitting outside of Europe on a continent that will almost certainly be ravaged by climate change.

But for a small moment I shall allow myself to be optimistic. The idea of Europe waking up to the possibilities of a vast network of renewable sources ensuring a steady supply of electricity to the entire continent has to be something we strive to attain. As the report points out, if it's not windy in one part of Europe, it will be in another, so linking all our resources in this way has to be a good thing.

It also throws up some interesting possibilities - one is that if we're still transmitting electricity down AC currents when DC currents are so much more efficient, why haven't we either already switched or put a timetable in place for switching?

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