Saharan Sun to Power European Supergrid

The idea that the ever burning sun in the Sahara could be home to PV and CSP energy plants and provide Europe all of its power needs is gaining steam again (no pun intended). Some of the challenges are redoing the grid by installing transmission lines that do not lose power over long distances. Transmitting power in DC will allow for transmission of power over longer distances with minimum power loss. However the current, which is usually created in AC, would have to be converted to DC first. These power inverters tend to be expensive.

Another challenge, with respect to Europeans getting their power from the Sahara in Africa, was addressed in my previous post, "Renewable OPEC: Careful What You Wish For."

I am glad that the Europeans are discussing the generation of their power from renewable means rather than falling back on the old dirty reliables, coal and nuclear.