Science View

The vast Sahara Desert stretches 5,000 kilometers from east to west, and 1,500 kilometers from north to south. Today there is growing interest in its potential as a solar power site. It sounds like a far-fetched idea, but a group of mainly Japanese researchers are pushing a plan to turn the Sahara Desert into a giant solar farm. It's called the Sahara Solar Breeder Plan, and it goes like this: use desert sand, an inexhaustible resource, to make cheap silicon... and out of that silicon, mass-produce solar panels. These panels would harness the tremendous solar radiation that the Sahara receives to generate electricity... which would be sent around the globe by superconducting power lines. How's that for an ambitious project! On The Leading Edge, we'll explore this boldly original idea.