The climate change is constantly running. So the global temperatures keep rising due to the high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. By now, everyone is able to see it with their own eyes. Thus, the global warming is not a joke.
How can we lower the carbon dioxide levels? For instance, the simplest way is to stop using fossil fuels for producing energy. As a result, the solar energy industry is on the rise right now.
Solar farms to hit the climate change
There are pros and cons of solar farms. But the pros definitely overweights the cons. Firstly, this technology is green. Moreover, safe. While the only two things are needed, it is enough space and the sun. So the high-developed countries are working non-stop setting up more of giant solar plants. Interestingly that one of the most suitable places for these plants are deserts. Especially – the Sahara.
As of right now, only 3% of the world’s energy comes from solar farms. However, the world has to be getting around 70% of the worldwide used energy from solar energy plants in order to finally switch to zero-carbon-emission energy system.
According to the date above, the mankind has a long way to cope with the climate change. In order to go before, we reach the goal of a zero-carbon-emission level. Which also means that vast areas will need to be covered with new solar energy objects. In this respect the Sahara Desert seems to be one of the greatest locations for all these new giant solar facilities.
Researches on the global climate changes
However, according to one of the latest researches in this field, it is not the greatest idea after all. Surprising, right?
This research that has been published very recently by 2 scientists. Zhengyao Lu and Benjamin Smith. The first one is a Researcher in Physical Geography from Lund University in Sweden. And the second one who is Director of Research from Western Sydney University in Australia. Their paper shows it very clearly that constructing numerous giant solar energy objects in the Sahara will lead to serious the global climate change.
Solar panels – how it works
Let’s go back to the basics of the solar energy just for a little bit. So solar panels catch the sun energy. Then they convert it into electricity. But we should always keep in mind that, unfortunately, the solar panels are far away from being 100% efficient. The efficiency factor of the solar panels is an amount of energy. That is successfully converted into electricity from all the sun energy caught by the panels. As of today, solar panels are able to convert around 20 percent of the sun light. However, the amount they catch is quite low. And the rest 80 percent is the reason why stuffing the Sahara with giant solar plants will damage our planet immensely.
The solar energy that is not converted then goes back into the environment, so basically solar farms turn into huge sources of heat. And since solar panels are dark colored, they attract and catch much more sun energy than sandy surfaces of the Sahara do. Which means this issue even more serious because the amount of sun energy that black-colored solar panels are able to catch (and then release back to the air) in the middle of a desert is just enormous.
The extra heat that gets released back creates even bigger temperature gap between the desert itself and the oceans around it. According to the researchers Lu and Smith, this gap will decrease the atmospheric pressure above the Sahara which will lead to moisture-laden air to rise and turn into rain.
Sahara
The first thought here is so what is wrong with that. The Sahara will become a very unique green area. Well, it is not that simple. The thing is the climate conditions of each area on our planet are interconnected with each other. Moreover, changing climate of one area will cause other areas to change too. As you see, it is not a positive thing.
All the extra heat released by the solar plants in the Sahara will eventually lead to the rise of global temperature. The polar regions of our planet will be affected more than others. So more and more ice will be melting. In its turn it will lead to the rising sea levels. On the other hand, to the bringing floods to the areas with low altitude. In the end the consequences will be extremely negative and irretrievable.
What do we do then? According to the recent data and research, agrivoltaics is a very promising field. Because it combines solar farming and agriculture in one place with solar panels having very low effect on the environment.