Scientists Warn That Filling The Sahara With Solar Panels Is A Bad Idea

[NickW + 2,714]

22 minutes ago, Gerry Maddoux said:

Texas Railroad Commission--the regulatory agency--Statewide Rule 32 states that natural gas can be vented for only up to 24 hours or flared for up to 10 days. After that, you have to hook up to a pipeline or shut in production. The TRRC used to be strong. Then they folded. To be perfectly honest, this allowance has been one of the great causes of a glut in the NG/light sweet oil market. Rather than allow small operators to go broke, the TRRC allowed them to vent and flare, thereby producing enough money to move on to the next hole. And so on. The Permian Basin gas flares makes the area appear like London at night, from a satellite image. And there is lots of venting of methane too. This, like a lot of things in the Texas energy world, is about to undergo major change.

 

NG is used as an oil-lifting agent in the Permian, but methane is not such a great lifting gas--not nearly as good as say ethane. So, no, re-injection is not an option. I cannot over-emphasize how much methane gas comes up with the oil in the Permian. 

Thanks for the information

In my opinion it demonstrates a regulatory failing in that development of oil wells should have gone hand in hand with capturing the NG. 

[Dan Clemmensen + 1,011]

On 3/3/2021 at 5:22 AM, JoMack said:

 

Sahara Desert Solar Farm is Not Good?

According to a report by Inverse, researchers have found evidence that only a certain per cent of the sun's heat is being transformed into reusable energy and the rest is being returned to our environment as heat, which helps increase the Earth's temperature and contributes to global warming.

It is something that many of us were not expecting at all and is what we're trying to avoid by using clean, reusable energy sources such as sunlight.

This superficially reasonable argument turns out to be really ridiculous. If there is no solar panel, much of the solar energy will be converted to heat anyway when it hits the sand. The percentage depends on the albedo (light color or dark color) of the ground (or water) at the location. Even in the Sahara, less than 40% of the incoming sunlight is reflected back into space. The remaining 60% is converted to heat. I'm not sure exactly, but it's possible that converting some of the incoming sunlight to electricity will actually reduce the amount of heat instead of increasing it.

If that were ever a problem in the maximum of 3.5% of the Sahara we would be using, we could simply double the size to a total of 7% and add highly reflective white panels between the solar panels in a percentage that makes the average albedo exactly match the current albedo of the Sahara.

[NickW + 2,714]

4 hours ago, Dan Clemmensen said:

This superficially reasonable argument turns out to be really ridiculous. If there is no solar panel, much of the solar energy will be converted to heat anyway when it hits the sand. The percentage depends on the albedo (light color or dark color) of the ground (or water) at the location. Even in the Sahara, less than 40% of the incoming sunlight is reflected back into space. The remaining 60% is converted to heat. I'm not sure exactly, but it's possible that converting some of the incoming sunlight to electricity will actually reduce the amount of heat instead of increasing it.

If that were ever a problem in the maximum of 3.5% of the Sahara we would be using, we could simply double the size to a total of 7% and add highly reflective white panels between the solar panels in a percentage that makes the average albedo exactly match the current albedo of the Sahara.

I always thought painting roofs white or at least choosing light roof tiles was a simple technique to increase albedo effect. 

[Stan Lacey 0]

On 2/27/2021 at 3:31 PM, markslawson said:

If it was possible to cover the whole Sahara with solar panels, and this seems a stretch, that might be a problem for climate, but as Meredith points out you're not likely to get much beyond 80 miles - 128 kilometres - square, which would be difficult to find in the Sahara unless you had exact co-ordinates. Whether such a vast bank of PVs would really be practical in the desert - think of the wear on the panels through the extreme heat and cold (it gets cold in the desert at night) - is another question..  

Good thoughts.  We have had panels on our home in Northern California for over 5 years with no abnormal deterioration.  We experience daily temperature swings of over 50 degrees during the summer and winter occasionally.   Typical highs can occasionally reach 110F with winter time lows in the mid to high 20's.  A potential concern in the desert would be sand abrasion on the panel surfaces themselves from the wind causing a potential abnormal performance deterioration.  

[Thomas Ruf 0]

Wie naiv ist die Frage?
Was will man damit bezwecken?

Die Sahara ist mindestens 1.500 x 2500 KM in der Ausdehnung!

Es ist nicht die einzigste Wüste auf der Welt!

Bevor die Sahara oder das Klima ein Problem bekommt, bekommt der Solarzellenhersteller, der Energietransport oder die Energiespeicherung ein Problem!
Alle anderen Überlegungen und Argumente sind übelste Stimmungsmache!

[KeyboardWarrior + 527]

Irrigate the sahara and make a giant biodiesel farm. More profit that way 😉