20 TW in the Sahara desert: dream or reality? dream or reality?

With solar energy becoming a more and more common and a financially feasible method of generating electricity, along with it being renewable and sustainable, there is no doubt that it will be an important part of the future’s power generation. There is an enormous amount of solar power being provided to the earth constantly, more than 10 000 times the total energy consumption of the entire planet. This begs the question; is it possible to satisfy the global electricity demand with solar energy exclusively? This paper will attempt to answer this question, while narrowing the scope to installation of solar energy collection
devices in the Sahara desert. The reason the Sahara desert is to be evaluated is due to the large amounts of solar irradiance it receives as well as the vast amounts of space available. Furthermore, a goal of 20 TWpeak to produce is defined, in order to future-proof the potential solution. Subjects covered in the paper include investigation into the location, different forms of electricity generation, the transportation of energy, political issues, as well as the expected
environmental impact.