2021-10-18

[public] 3.55M views, 116K likes, dislikes audio only

TED-Ed

Explore what would happen if we covered the Sahara Desert in solar panels, and the possibility of it solving our energy crisis.

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Stretching over roughly nine million square kilometers and with sands reaching temperatures of up to 80° Celsius, the Sahara Desert receives about 22 million terawatt hours of energy from the Sun every year. That’s well over 100 times more energy than humanity consumes annually. So, could covering the desert with solar panels solve our energy problems? Dan Kwartler digs into the possibility.

Lesson by Dan Kwartler, directed by Christoph Sarow, AIM Creative Studios.

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View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-don-t-we-cover-the-desert-with-solar-panels-dan-kwartler

Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-don-t-we-cover-the-desert-with-solar-panels-dan-kwartler#digdeeper

Animator's website: http://aimcreativestudios.com

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