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Sand dunes in the Sahara Desert, Merzouga, Morocco. (Credit: iStock)
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Going green could make the Sahara desert … green.
According to a new study, the world's largest hot desert – with limited population, strong winds and unimpeded sun exposure – is an idyllic landscape for generating renewable energy.
Scientists have long been studying how to turn this potentially endless generator into a world power port. The Sahara Solar Breeder Project, for example, hopes to supply half of the world by 2050 with solar panel farms in the desert.
Although wind and solar farms are known to affect the heat and humidity of a region, the environmental impact of these projects on the desert itself has been largely neglected. But a new study published in the journal Sciencereveal reveals that not only can these plants literally lead the world, but also transform the Sahara for the better.
Researchers have developed climate models based on temperature, rainfall, and vegetation changes that would occur if the entire Sahara – 3,500,000 square miles – were covered with solar and wind farms. A project of this size could create up to 79 terawatts of electricity – four times the 18 terawatts used in the world in 2017, according to the study.
"We have found that large scale installation of solar and wind power plants can generate more precipitation and promote vegetation growth in these areas," said Eugenia Kalnay, co-author of the document. Specifically, it could double the rainfall of the Sahara and the neighboring Sahel and help increase vegetation by 20%, according to research.
"The increase in precipitation is a consequence of the complex land-atmosphere interactions that occur because solar panels and wind turbines create rougher and darker surfaces," Kalnay said.
The study explains that wind turbines can bring warmer air to the surface, while solar panels help reduce reflectivity of the surface, two factors that increase precipitation, turning the arid landscape into a green, green machine. and renewable.
"The increase in rainfall and vegetation, combined with clean electricity from solar and wind energy, could help agriculture, economic development and social welfare in the Sahara, the Sahel, the Middle East" and in other neighboring regions, "Safa Motesharrei said. One of the co-authors of the study said at the University of Illinois.
This story was published in the New York Post.
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