- Reaction score
- 6,233
I've put this here rather than the solar forum as it's more an 'interest' thread than a techy one.
I was travelling back from a job in the middle east yesterday, and passing through one of the airports I saw a series of advertising posters for HSBC - those supposedly inspiring future technology and emerging markets to tempt you to give the thieving mongrels even more of your money. Anyway, one of them said something like '0.3% of the Middle Easts solar energy capability could provide enough power for the whole of Europe'. Well, given the climate and geography of the area that may well be true (or close to it). But.... and here's what got me thinking..... how on earth would you get the electricity produced from one continent to another, across roughly 4,000 miles of sea and land? If you built a 'super-super grid' then I guess the physics might be do-able if we pushed the voltages up into the Mega Volt range.... but then, unlike oil and gas which need to be shipped and can be stored, the solar energy is instantaneous - so one little petty politics scrap and someone turns off the switch and we all go dark!
So, there's clearly issues and practicalities, but the more I thought about it the more it seems to make sense - when their oil runs out, the sunshine takes over - and a handful of countries will ALWAYS have the upper hand!
I was travelling back from a job in the middle east yesterday, and passing through one of the airports I saw a series of advertising posters for HSBC - those supposedly inspiring future technology and emerging markets to tempt you to give the thieving mongrels even more of your money. Anyway, one of them said something like '0.3% of the Middle Easts solar energy capability could provide enough power for the whole of Europe'. Well, given the climate and geography of the area that may well be true (or close to it). But.... and here's what got me thinking..... how on earth would you get the electricity produced from one continent to another, across roughly 4,000 miles of sea and land? If you built a 'super-super grid' then I guess the physics might be do-able if we pushed the voltages up into the Mega Volt range.... but then, unlike oil and gas which need to be shipped and can be stored, the solar energy is instantaneous - so one little petty politics scrap and someone turns off the switch and we all go dark!
So, there's clearly issues and practicalities, but the more I thought about it the more it seems to make sense - when their oil runs out, the sunshine takes over - and a handful of countries will ALWAYS have the upper hand!