How solar panels in the Sahara could rain more

Renewable energy facilities such as wind turbines and solar farms are generally responsible for preventing environmental changes, but according to new research they can cause their own environmental changes. According to a study published in the journal Science, building wind and solar farms in the Sahara Desert can increase rainfall and grow more plants.

Governments and energy providers around the world are turning more and more to wind and solar power to produce electricity and replace fossil fuels that generate climate change. But a group of researchers wondered how these sources of energy would affect the environment as they become more widespread. After all, filling the sky with turbine blades and covering the ground with solar panels is likely to change things, at least a little.

To test this idea, the team used the Sahara desert as a test bed. For this study, the authors examined what the desert would look like if covered with wind turbines and solar panels. The researchers simulated the effects of about 79 terawatts of solar panels and 3 terawatts of wind turbines.

To put this figure in perspective, the total amount of solar energy added by all the nations of the world in 2017 was slightly less than a tenth of a terawatt, and this research is therefore not immediately relevant for today's renewable installations. hui. But it's a number that's not totally inconceivable in the distant future.

They found that with enough solar panels and wind turbines, the atmosphere around the facilities was heating up, with both wind turbines beating the air and solar panels absorbing more sunlight. This has increased the soil temperature, combined with lower wind speeds due to the turbines. These conditions would then favor more precipitation.

According to the simulations, the result is that the Sahara could see twice as much rain with these renewable installations as at present. Although on average, the increases are small, researchers believe that these rains would fall in concentrated locations, creating up to 20 inches more rainfall per year – a huge change with broad ecological ramifications.

Indeed, humanity could transform one of Earth's most extreme climates by harnessing the energy of the sun's rays and the world's winds.

Source: Science via Los Angeles Times