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The Problem with Solar Energy in Africa

Real Engineering · 8.1M views · 2021-10-23 · 18:20

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Overview

Real Engineering looks at why Africa's abundant solar potential is hard to turn into usable power, especially for Europe. It covers the transmission, infrastructure and economic obstacles, and the pivot from concentrated solar to photovoltaics.

On Hacker News

Linked whenever commenters ask whether Sahara solar could power Europe, as a clear explanation of why it is impractical.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2021–2024

Topics

Renewables, batteries & storagePower grid, heating & buildings
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solar powersaharapower transmissionrenewableseurope energy

What people said

sofixa · 2024-10 · Recommendation

> Can we do the same in Europe and put massive solar panels in the desert of North Africa and import the energy northwards ? (I realize this is a super naive approach, and the main problem is energy storage rather than generation) A very good video from Real Engineering explains that no, not really: [VIDEO]

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Taikonerd · 2022-06 · Recommendation

> we learned in geography class, that one could power the whole EU, if we occupied some area of the Sahara desert with solar panels I sometimes hear that too. The YouTube channel "Real Engineering" did a video about the idea: [1] The TLDR is: the Sahara definitely gets enough sun, but transmitting the power into Europe would be hard. [1]: [VIDEO]

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Sebb767 · 2022-04 · Recommendation

> why there's so much interest in nuclear when low-tech concentrated solar in the desert can get the job done and scaling it up (and ensuring it's 100% safe) isn't a matter of R&D but just basic manufacturing. Solar is dependent on the time of day (as the sister comments pointed out) and also on weather. Plus, you need to get the energy from the desert to wherever it's needed - this is non-trivial for densely populated areas far from the equator. You also need to maintain the solar panels; sand can be quite bad for their efficiency. Lastly, the areas that do have the space and solar power might be politically unstable, which makes the massive investments needed to get this going quite risky. Real engineering has a good video about this: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Real Engineering, played through YouTube.

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