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Here's the plan: Build manufacturing plants around the Sahara Desert that will extract the silica from the plentiful sand, and use it to make photovoltaic solar panels. The first solar panels, in turn, will be used to build some initial solar power plants, the energy from which will be used to power more silicon manufacturing plants—or to "breed" more solar power plants—which will provide more clean energy to manufacture more PV panels, which can power more silicon plants, and on and on and on.
Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by pianopraze
Now, on another note, I wonder what the environmental impact of huge solar panels in the Sahara Desert would be? Global warming because it no longer reflects that heat back to space? Global cooling because it would lower the temperature of the desert? Climate shifts because it would change atmospheric heating patterns?
I'm not saying it is a bad idea, I just wonder what all the effects would be. There is no such thing as "renewable" energy. All energy comes from the sun, and there is a finite amount of it!