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Comment by Factorium | Hacker News Reader

What about building huge solar plants in Western Sahara and Morocco? The Moroccan Government seems pretty friendly and stable.

If we then configure all our electric cars to charge during the day, and discharge from 6pm onwards, we can address a lot of the evening peak.

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All depends on the cost and the timescale. You can do both of those things, and while neither could be built at a scale to be a complete substitute overnight, they’re probably both faster to build than modern nuclear plants.

(I’d go for these and nuclear myself, but nuclear isn’t generally popular and I don’t see that changing).

Even with HVDC I'm very sceptical that we'll soon see enough transmission capacity (electrical) from northern africa to europe or other regions in the world for that to become a relevant part of the eurafrican grid.

Why? Because we'd need lots of these.

Take this project as a reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Hami%E2%80%93Zhengzho...

Capacity: 8 GW Cost: ~ 3 billion EUR

Assuming 10 kW each, with one such HVDC connection you could charge/discharge 800000 cars simultaneously. That is quite a lot less than the current number of cars and 10 kW is a lot less than the charging speeds which are currently being offered.

You need access to millions of gallons of water a year to run a huge solar plant like Ivanpah, not to mention there probably aren't a lot of great roads for bringing in materials for heavy construction in the sahara vs the American west where in a days drive you are in the container yards at the Port of Los Angeles, so its not as easy as just plopping solar panels in the middle of the desert all over the world.

Pointing to Ivanpah is disingenuous, as solar thermal of that kind is has failed to compete. PV is much cheaper now, and PV needs no cooling water.

Even without the water, the fact that you are practically on the moon out in the deserts of Africa makes any sort of operation difficult enough. It's probably much less of a headache to just open a nuclear power plant on the morrocan coast than to do anything that produces a similar amount of power out in the morrocan desert, where there might not be any roads let alone a grade separated freeway and a freight rail network connected to every port on the continent, as is the case even in some of the more desolate parts of the U.S..

I doubt so.

A nuclear plant would let Morocco more dependent (expertise and combustible). Multiple intents to obtain uranium (either by mining it, as early as in the 1940's, or as a by-product of phosphate mining) aborted. Selling claims to foreign companies is less risky and is the path followed by Morocco.

A solar farm isn't a plant, there is no real permanent need for heavy-duty infrastructure: it needs few input (no energy nor raw matter, and most spare parts can be stored in the farm) and a set of power-line conveys its sole output, no need for freight trains/trucks.

Moreover Morocco's South is quite different from the average subsaharian desert. There are transport infrastructures, a very pertinent expressway (A3: Casablanca-Marrakesh-Agadir), ports (especially at Laâyoune), even airports (Dakhla can accommodate a Boeing 737). There are serious mining operations, see for example Phosboucraa. Some infra was created by French colons in order to exploit mines and is more-or-less maintained and extended.

Isn't offshoring power a major security risk? Terrorists cut the cables or the external nation prioritises power to themself or others in some time of crisis.

I'm all for global trade but as we saw with medical supplies in the early covid days, core services for society to function should to some base minimum be held and produced domestically. I'd think this includes power, medicine and food.

What about Spanish deserts for starters?

Germany might get more kWh per euro invested in the panels it it was to construct them there, though of course it wouldn't be with german workers.

What happens in severe storms?

Then you rely on turbines instead, or turn on your nuclear reactors, or import from neighbours.

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