And the profits grow

[eppie]

Here is a description of the Sahara; "The Sahara occupies approximately 10 percent of the African Continent and is one of the hottest regions in the world, with mean annual temperatures exceeding 30°C. In the hottest months, temperatures can rise over 50°C, and temperatures can fall below freezing in the winter. A single daily variation of -0.5°C to 37.5°C has been recorded. The Sahara is also extremely windy. Hot, dust-filled winds create dust devils, which can make the temperatures seem even hotter."

Let's talk about maintenance... And, one last question. How would you get this power to New York? Oh, yeah. They live above the 40° N latitude mark. We abandoned that place.The moron lounge would be where you would propose covering 1/3 of the Sahara desert with solar panels and everyone would call you a genius.

Kandrathe, I know this is a response to zenda and you didn't come up with this whole desert thing but we are at this stage of the thread just talking nonsense.
1. We don't need 100% solar 2. solar works fine in other places then the Sahara (remember that solar cells need light, not heat).3. Prices of solar cells will go down, I estimate that 50 dollar for a square meter will not be far off in 20 years (organic cells) 4. These cells can be integrated everywhere, (roofs, windows, cars etc, tremendously decreasing the needed area).

In all, solar cells will get much cheaper so that we don't need these super high yields, we will be able to put them everywhere, directly on the places where the electricity is needed (giving far less loss then compared to your nuclear or coal plant 200 miles from your house).
1 thing, we need chemicals to make these organic solar cells.....so let's just hope we don't finish all the oil before we can start producing them large scale. :D