Some reasons to be discouraged making a solar farm in a desert:
Middle of nowhere, you need to transport all the hardware to the place
Maintanace, you need people on-site to support it
Desert sand is sandbladting your panels
(and this is the biggest one I think). You need to transport the power from where its generated to where is requested. Which is an imperfect proces, and every time you double the distance you also double the resistance
HVDC lines are commonly used for long-distance power transmission, since they require fewer conductors and incur less power loss than equivalent AC lines. HVDC also allows power transmission between AC transmission systems that are not synchronized. Since the power flow through an HVDC link can be controlled independently of the phase angle between source and load, it can stabilize a network against disturbances due to rapid changes in power. HVDC also allows the transfer of power between grid systems running at different frequencies, such as 50 and 60 Hz. This improves the stability and economy of each grid, by allowing the exchange of power between previously incompatible networks.
Yeah, but by now the much lower cost and higher efficiency of panels vs. the drawbacks of the location has shifted the cost/benefit ratio quite a bit.
It’s far cheaper to build the panels where the energy is needed and compensate for bad weather by building more panels (and other sources) instead of having the drawbacks of the north african location. Solar panels in the desert are an issue - as noted here multiple times, sand does not mix well with panels, neither does too much heat. Solar reflector plants have never really taken off due to various issues as well.
For countries that have access to comparably cold deserts like the PRC it’s a bit different and they have implemented similar plans
And transport remains an issue by itself and so does political stability in these countries.
Some reasons to be discouraged making a solar farm in a desert:
Also deserts are not even nearly lifeless. A solar farm of the size needed would wipe out a lot of habitat.
Won’t somebody think of the Fremen?!
400kv DC lines to the rescue!
Expensive though…
Why just 400 kV?
At least Ukraine has several 750 kV power lines. Decreases the energy loss quite a bit!
Wow didn’t know TIL!
Why DC? I’ve always been taught AC was better for long distances. What am I missing?
Solar produces DC, presumably the even higher voltage is preferable to the conversion losses.
From what I remember you get pretty close to AC mid-conversion anyway, but I looked it up and there are some other reasons to use DC:
From [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current]:
I just know that was the future french/european plan some 15 years ago.
Yeah, but by now the much lower cost and higher efficiency of panels vs. the drawbacks of the location has shifted the cost/benefit ratio quite a bit.
It’s far cheaper to build the panels where the energy is needed and compensate for bad weather by building more panels (and other sources) instead of having the drawbacks of the north african location. Solar panels in the desert are an issue - as noted here multiple times, sand does not mix well with panels, neither does too much heat. Solar reflector plants have never really taken off due to various issues as well. For countries that have access to comparably cold deserts like the PRC it’s a bit different and they have implemented similar plans
And transport remains an issue by itself and so does political stability in these countries.
This is also why there is a lot of work being done on room-temperature (-ish at least) supervonductors.