Break through in desalinization!

[Lancer]

"Popular Science Magazine did an informal study and found that if 1,000 square miles of the southern Nevada desert were covered in solar panels it would meet, perhaps even surpass, the United States' electricity needs. "


Yeah, but Oerdin screwed that up...now it's all prime farmland!

[Az]

If it were cheap, it would already have been done. Prices still have to come down or the federal government has to pony-up the money in subsidies and grants. Gee, that might have been something useful to spend away our surplus on...

pinko commie bastard! We need more Armor and cluster bombs in the fight against terror!!11

anyway, Why do they cost so goddamn much?

[DRoseDARs]

Pekka sees desert, you say: "No one should live there because it's desert."

Sensible people see desert, they say: "How many can live in this desert comfortably without straining the water supplies?"

Reno City officials see desert, they say: "MONEY! I LIKE WHORING FOR MONEY!"

Washoe County (in which you find Reno and Sparks) itself has a population of 339,486 per the 2000 Census. This doesn't take into account other inhabited places residing in other counties just a few miles east or south that are loosely part of a greater "metropolitan" region re: within 1 hour's drive.

The problem you're having is that you're lumping all deserts into a broad characterization that you and others symbolize with the Sahara Desert, which we can all agree is almost totally inhospitable and thusly uninhabitable. Parts of the Great Basin aren't that kind of desert, that's why you find cities like Reno, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix. Not all deserts are as dry as a bone. With sensible planning, many desert regions can be inhabited well within their resource supplies.

[Dr Strangelove]

Just to get ahead of the game let me ask this: if we desalinate enough seawater to make the Saharan Arabian, and Namibian deserts arable what will be the world wide effects? We'd have to put the leftover salt somewhere. If it's dumped back into the ocean wouldn't the area near the dumping point become toxic to sealife? OTOH planting crops in a large part of the globe that was desert and probably acted as a heat reflector might actually partially counteract global warming.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Azazel
anyway, Why do they cost so goddamn much?

Getting the material pure enough has been a problem. The Euros actually have gotten the price down considerably.

Another inovation that has been invented (by us, IIRC) recently was making square cells. Previously, all photovoltaic cells had to be round, meaning lots of wasted space.

In some ways, the future looks good.

I wonder though, what will be the effect of all that heat that would normally be radiated back into space being converted into electricity and turned into heat elsewhere.

Where will they put the salt from the desalinization efforts? It will be toxic waste.



And Dr S beats me to the punch.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Lancer
"Popular Science Magazine did an informal study and found that if 1,000 square miles of the southern Nevada desert were covered in solar panels it would meet, perhaps even surpass, the United States' electricity needs. "


Yeah, but Oerdin screwed that up...now it's all prime farmland!

That isn't necessarily out of the question. It depends on the geologic history of the region and the types of soil that have been created there. As I mentioned before, ancient Lake Lohanton left us with fertile soils even though in modern times this entire region is now 'desert'.

[chequita guevara]

The American SouthWest is so beautiful as it is now. It would be horrible to turn it into farmland.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Azazel

If it were cheap, it would already have been done. Prices still have to come down or the federal government has to pony-up the money in subsidies and grants. Gee, that might have been something useful to spend away our surplus on...

pinko commie bastard! We need more Armor and cluster bombs in the fight against terror!!11

anyway, Why do they cost so goddamn much?

Heh.

It costs so much because it still a relatively "new" technology and as such isn't widely manufactured enough to bring down production costs. The more people buy it, the cheaper it becomes to produce it. It a capitalist thing that I don't know how to explain properly. My feeling is that the government should step in a find a surefire means of meeting our energy demands without killing us with resultant pollution. This coupled with these desalinization plants would ease a lot of problems here in the US.

[Gatekeeper]

As others have said, this is an incredible advance that will, in time, benefit hundreds of millions of people. My congrats to the folks who made this possibility into cold, hard reality.

Gatekeeper

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The American SouthWest is so beautiful as it is now. It would be horrible to turn it into farmland.

I find that oddly ironic considering you live in a swamp/hurricane magnet. Then again, I guess seeing that much water on a daily basis can grate on one's nerves and make dry desolation seem like Heaven...

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
I find that oddly ironic considering you live in a swamp/hurricane magnet. Then again, I guess seeing that much water on a daily basis can grate on one's nerves and make dry desolation seem like Heaven...

I love the desert. I just need to be near a large body of water. That would mean SoCal would be perfect for me (especially with the mountains), but it's filled with Souther Califnornians and it's too expensive. I got sticker shock when I was back in Chicago a couple months back.

Interestingly, Southern Florida has just as much of a clean water problem as SoCal. They may be in a swamp, but they don't have enough drinkable water to support them. They want to start piping water south from North Florida. This desalinization technique will help save our water up here.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Azazel
Lancer: the problem is energy, now. You need to power those babies, you know...

Fusion w00t

[DRoseDARs]

"This desalinization technique will help save our water up here."

[chequita guevara]

What could we do with unlimited water and power?

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
What could we do with unlimited water and power?

Become an energy exporter instead of being an oil-addicted imperilistic (sic) superpower.