Europe can meet all its electricity needs, even after making deep cuts in CO2 emissions from electricity generation by 70 percent by the year 2050! At the same time, it can also phase out nuclear power! But, how can Europe meet these entire environmental crises simultaneously?!
According to a German study, the key to its solution lies in using the sun’s energy. And to do this, a collaboration of European, Middle Eastern and North African nations is needed.
Franz Trieb, project manager of the study said,
Every year, each square kilometer of desert receives solar energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil, said. ‘Multiplying by the area of deserts world-wide, this is nearly a thousand times the entire current energy consumption of the world.
We can tap in to this energy by using mirrors to concentrate sunlight and create heat … to raise steam and drive a generator in the conventional way. This kind of ‘concentrating solar power’ — which is very different from the better-known photovoltaic ‘solar panels’ — has been producing electricity successfully in California for nearly 20 years.
The report is available here.
