There are places in the US where it is sunny almost all the time, like the southwest. But if we covered an area of the Sahara with solar panels, the sun exposure with the area would generate enough energy for the whole US at least. Plus, I would imagine it would be a great source of income for those countries.Why isn't this a topic under discussion or even mentioned between countries' governments/in Congress/in politicians' viewpoints?
Actually there was talk about doing some major solar installations in New Mexico and Nevada. Unfortunately our government put a temporary hold on all large scale solar installations because they feel that they might hurt the local wildlife and more studies need to be done. So, now the huge installations have been put in line and have to go through a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense. Also, just so you know, large solar installations dont generally use photovoltaics. they use concentrating mirrors and concentrate the sun on a pipe with some sort of liquid in it which boils and runs turbines.
It takes companies or citizens to desire to switch their power source. Yes some areas build solar or wind abilities to create power. Its not super cost effective but getting there. Its new technology, that use to be super expensive to make panels, and now is more affordable. In todays world economy, even though it would help down the road, noone has the money to redo their power source right now, its cheaper to just pay the company providing power. All new things take time to be implimented, studied, planned, and permitted. There will be a slow increased usage, but its not like tomarrow everyone will ask for solar power and companies invest to make it available, just cant happen that way. For your Sahara synario, each country can deal with its own power needs, to bring the power from the Sahara to another country is not doable, each desert area could power its nearby areas, when the need and desire arises. In most continents of the world, individual countries are more concerned with basics, clean water and food, and most dont do a good job at providing that, solar power to poor nations, although its a good thought, just isnt a concern now, its clean water and food, medicine is more important. The big picture warrants more diverse ways to get power, but the world is not as one, the countries do not discuss their needs with other countries. Some countries come to the rescue of others on their own if allowed to. Someday, hopefully the world will be more eco friendly, and peole wont starve to death daily
It's expensive - solar power isn't competitive with power from the grid in most countries and it's a very expensive in terms of capital - you have to put most of the money up front. Meanwhile fossil fuel plants are cheaper to build and from then on you only spend money on fuel when you're selling power (and of course you don't have to pay for the damage you cause society with air pollution and greenhouse gases).
Good question. One of the reasons is the greed of manufacturing companies. No matter the profit margin of the product, they seem to want to charge so high a price that the break even point is ten years down the road, so the true savings are few. The cost of solar panels should have dropped way lower than they have by now. I believe that the political correctness of the product will tempt the manufacturers to keep the prices artificially high. One other answerer is right, the panels are very fragile, and damage would destroy the investment, so new inroads need to occur in technology to protect the panels from damage. Somewhere in the middle is a profit for the manufacturers, and savings for the consumer. I hope we find that middle-ground soon.
In the past, it was not economically feasible to mass produce solar panels. Because the costs associated with making them didn't outweigh the energy saved. But, there has been many recent technological breakthroughs with solar panel technology that makes mass production realistic. Just remember, even though we may have all of this great technology; in order for it to hit the public market, it has to make business sense. This pertains to big energy such as coal, gas, and oil; in the fact that current market sentiment favors green products. This means that since the market really likes green products and ideas, there is going to be a push towards greener sources of energy like solar panels.
