Two scientific researchers have published a paper on a little matter that Lyndon LaRouche pointed out years ago — solar panels on hot arid land make it hotter. And they find that the grand plans to solarize the World Desert, cooked up at Harvard University’s Paulson School of Business and at some Indian universities, will warm the planet. The largest solar farms in the world are all in deserts or arid areas, in China, India, Tunisia, and the United States.
Of course, these researchers’ simulations are not likely to be more accurate than those they contradict, but they suffice to indicate that computer models can come to completely opposite results with non-linear weather processes which are not well understood.
The Conversation news organization on Feb. 11 reported the study by Zhengyao Lu and Benjamin Smith, “Solar Panels in Sahara Could Boost Renewable Energy but Damage the Global Climate — Here’s Why.”
Referring to a University of Illinois paper, whose lead author is Dr. Yan Li, They say, “Researchers imagine it might be possible to transform the world’s largest desert, the Sahara, into a giant solar farm, capable of meeting four times the world’s current energy demand.” The Yan paper also postulates convection currents are therefore drawing moisture from the Mediterranean and Atlantic and beginning to green the Sahara.
