Are There Solar Panels In The Desert

It wouldn t be easy though.

Are there solar panels in the desert. Solar panels could have remarkable impact on the desert though installing mass amounts of solar panels in the sahara could also have a remarkable impact on the desert itself. Insolation solar radiation in the mojave desert is among the best available in the united states and some significant population centers are located in the area. The solar energy industries association s 2008 u s. The amerisolar pv solar panels for the desert area are a particular type of solar panels made for the specific area of the planet such as desert or savanna where climatic conditions are very hard.

Vast open lands roughly equal in size to the entire state of new mexico with an endless bounty of heat from the sun. Should we solar panel the sahara desert. The mojave desert straddling california and nevada has been called the saudi arabia of solar power. And the sahara desert is so big that if there is cloudy weather it s localised and with thermal storage it can provide absolutely reliable power.

None of this makes it impossible to build solar in africa but all of this makes it easier to build small scale solar in a village rather than large scale solar in the desert. The statistics are mind boggling. Concentrated solar power is very efficient in hot dry environments but the steam generators use lots of water. There are several solar power plants in the mojave desert which supply power to the electricity grid.

If we covered just 1 2 percent of the sahara desert in solar panels we could harness enough of this power to meet the energy needs of the entire world. Solar energy capacity increased by 17 in 2007 reaching the total equivalent of 8 775 megawatts mw. If the desert were a country it would be fifth biggest in the world it s larger than brazil and slightly smaller than china and the us. The saharan sun is powerful enough to provide earth with significant solar energy.

Solar energy deployment increased at a record pace in the united states and throughout the world in 2008 according to industry reports. Amerisolar can give only the best products guaranteeing high performance low energy cost and 30 years of warranty. These plants can generally be built in a few years because solar plants are built almost entirely with modular readily available. In just six hours the world s deserts receive more solar energy than the entire human race consumes in a year.

Solar industry year in review found that u s. It s a clean energy developer s dream. Global horizontal irradiation a measure of how much solar power received per year.