[ExI] Michio Kaku makes 3 predictions about the future

[spike at rainier66.com]

...> On Behalf Of BillK via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] Michio Kaku makes 3 predictions about the future

On Sat, 26 Mar 2022 at 19:03, spike jones via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
...
>
> Conclusion: massive Saharan power stations will predate (and may even be
prerequisite to) any Mars colony.
>
> spike
> _______________________________________________


Hi Spike

>...The idea of covering the Sahara desert with solar panels has been well
studied and is not recommended. Small installations near the cities would be
OK, but not massive projects. Cover more than about 20% of the desert and
you run into big problems. Heat, climate change, transmission costs, etc.
Solar power is best sited near to where it will be used.


BillK

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BillK, the conclusion above assumes the generated power is used as electric
power.  Problem: there is insufficient market for electric power in that
area.  Note this is a persistent problem: areas well suited for wind and
solar power generation are generally not densely populated.

All is not lost however, for there are power-hungry processes which can be
performed on-site, then the refined products sold.

Consider a process used by South Africa in World War 2.  They had little oil
but plenty of coal, so they used the coal to make fuel.  Problem: the
process uses up most of the coal, for it burns coal to get the energy to
convert the remaining coal to fuel.  The process is very inefficient.
However... with sufficiently abundant supplies of electrical energy,
supplied by solar panels, coal can be converted to liquid fuels, then the
liquid fuels shipped to anywhere on the planet.  All that South African coal
could be shipped to the Sahara, converted there using solar power, then off
it goes to fuel vehicles or whatever else we need.

spike