The Problem with Solar Energy in Africa

150 million * 592 is a bit more than 8.9 billion $

If only there was a magic rock, that when you put it closer to other magic rocks, it got really hot, and stayed that way for a long time.

I’m in Australia and there’s a big factor that you’ve missed. Ironically, panels don’t work as well in extreme heat. Sun light = good, extreme heat = bad.

In China they use solar panels in the desert along with planting small plants under the solar panel to fight against desertification. One woman who won the noble peace prize over a decade ago was a Chinese woman living in the desert with her husband. She and many others have found methods to plant in the desert. I'm hoping that with the amount of incredibly skilled and talented innovative brains in this world, can come up with a solution for a greener planet. We may not see them but they exist and are working very hard for a better future.

This panel can put out close to 100 watts youtube.com/post/UgkxOqI2yqX0XVrhR2BMJciTWrHJpG8Fh… when positioned in the appropriate southernly direction, tilted to the optimal angle for your latitude/date, and connected to a higher capacity device than a 500. The built in kickstand angle is a fixed at 50 degrees. Up to 20% more power can be output by selecting the actual date and latitude optimal angle.The 500 will only input 3.5A maximum at 18 volts for 63 watts. Some of the excess power from the panel can be fed into a USB battery bank, charged directly from the panel while also charging a 500. This will allow you to harvest as much as 63 + 15 = 78 watts.If this panel is used to charge a larger device, such as the power station, then its full output potential can be realized.

10:33 That is the happiest looking meter I have ever seen.

I was involved with solar in the UAE and sand was a major problem because the panels become ever so slightly damp with condensation in the morning and coated with a fine layer that had to be washed off. I seem to remember the efficiency dropped by up to 80%. It's the same problem with cars left out overnight. We were even looking at automated rinsing systems. It was a decade ago and I don't know if they solved the problem.

I had 5 years ago some Business with a startet from germany.. they convert shipping Containers into solar farms.. you just put them where is space, you unfold the system and connect the village or whatever usage you have.. they cost around 150 000 Euro per piece only.. but its a local solution..

Also I'd be careful calling deserts barren, yes even the Sahara. Deserts are huge carbon sinks in ways that arent fully understood by scientists. Its not just the underwater basins but also these huge crusts of bacteria that grow on the surface of deserts. Building huge projects like this destories those crusts. Theyre extremely understudied and theres definitely ways they interact with desert ecosystems that we just do not understand at all yet. I know the discovery of these systems is recent, but the way everyone describes deserts as barren is really troubling. Theres still an ecosystem there and ignoring that to treat it as empty land could lead to huge losses we dont fully understand the consequences of.

Beyond the technical and scientific issues, there's also the problem of energy dependence. Giving another country control over your power is insane.

They can use the power for desalination plus reforestation. Plus you can put solar panels a bit higher and do some farming underneath and help for dessert animal and plants to get some shade. Multipurposing this idea can save the region and whole world eventually but you need small steps of course. Also reforestation and farming will help with extreme heats which can decrease lifetime of solar panels and increase need for cooling systems.

Generating hydrogen with modular, mass-producible setups might make more sense in these areas. When you have energy to spare, it's not so bad to waste it in the conversion. I guess just pumping large amounts of water from Mediterranean would be a challenge there, hence why it also makes more sense to do that closer to the Mediterranean.

Dear Real Engineering Team, there has been some confusion with Desertec and other organisations. As a director of the Desertec Foundation I hope to start a productive discussion about the Pros and Cons of the concept. Some information presented is outdated (for example the water issue has been solved with newer plants). I send you a mail with some further information. If you are interested, I can try to organise a visit to a more sophisticated plant. Then you can see the solutions in real life!

I live in Kenya and solar here is incredible since there is no true "winter", its only sunny and rainy season so there is not less sunlight or less sun hours around the year

Wow I was totally mistaken about AC versus DC in terms of long term transmission. I actually thought it was the exact opposite, that AC was preferable over long distances. I specifically remember learning that in school as a reason why the US uses AC, the distances are longer. I've been carrying around that possible misconception for like 25 years lol. I'm going to have to look into it now and see if maybe I just misunderstood what they said, if they were wrong outright, or if something has changed since then that rendered what they taught me obsolete

10:27 - that is the happiest instrument I ever seen!

How many Ewan McGregors do they generate per square kilometre?

"watt hours per day" is an ingenious way to unambiguously express the average output despite its varying over the day.

Solar energy in germany also has its problems. The energy output is unstable. Sometimes more, sometimes nothing. We have no possibilities to store the energy and we need to pay other countrys around to take the energy if we are producing too much. And also buy energy from them if the production is too low.

On the winter solstice, the solar power in Algeria is about 277.9 watts per square meter in Algeria. Adjusting for capacity-factor, on that day in Algeria, a square meter would net about 1.3 kwh in a day.