Desertec – a nanotechnology-enabled bold vision for an energy revolution

According to Desertec, in order to meet today’s global power demand of 18,000 TWh/year, it would suffice to equip about three thousandths of the world‘s deserts (about 90,000 square kilometers) with solar collectors of solar thermal power plants. About 20 square meters of desert would be enough to meet the individual power demand of one human being day and night – all this absolutely CO2 free.

There are basically three components required to make a Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power (CSP) Plant work in a concept like Desertec’s: The energy harvesting collectors (the “receivers”); large heat accumulators that act as energy surplus storage; and high-voltage transmission lines to carry the electricity to remote destinations.
CSP plants are are basically steam-generating power stations that produce electricity from heat – only that the energy is supplied by the sun and not oil, gas or coal. The solar radiation is collected by means of large reflector surfaces such as parabolic mirrors. Through the concentrated radiation, the heat transfer medium – an oil (for instance vegetable oil) that flows through the receiver – is heated to up to 500