Desert Regions - Impressive Desert Solar Power

It is believed that in just six hours, the world's deserts receive more energy from the sun than humans consume in a year.  Take an area the size of Wales in the Sahara desert and fill it with solar panels and you could power the whole of Europe!

The move to clean renewable energy is a very important when fighting climate change.  By using natural sources such as the sun, wind and tides we can create energy without creating so much pollution.  At the moment we use a lot of oil, gas and coal to power our country, but there are several large North African solar projects underway working to harness the awesome power of the desert sun!

The Sahara is the largest hot desert on earth (some deserts are cold like the Gobi desert in Asia) and can reach temperatures of 50°C.  Using solar photovoltaic panels with such an abundance of sunshine will produce three times more power than a PV solar panel in the UK.  

The sun's energy can also be used by solar power stations, which use banks of mirrors to reflect the sun's light and heat to a spot at the top of a large tower. Inside the tower, molten salt is heated by the concentrated heat of the sun and is used to heat water. The resulting high pressure steam is used to turn a magnet inside a generator, which creates electricity. Solar power stations are already being built in hotter countries, like this one in Sanlucar, Spain. (see below):

There is enormous potential for solar power stations in hot deserts, like the Sahara. There are a few problems to solve first such as how to stop sand causing damage to the solar panels and accumulating on the mirrors.  Cleaning them daily uses up a lot of water - something that isn't common in the desert!   But if technology can solve some of these problems then we will be doing a big favour to the world.  Who knew the desert could be green?