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Solar Islands On The Cards?
What do we want? Cheap, clean energy! When do we want it? Now!
Hmm, it’s never going to catch on as a protest chant, really, but creating cheap and clean energy is in demand. The problem is it takes a lot of solar panels to generate the same energy load as, say, a nuclear power station. How about building them HUGE, and in a very sunny spot then?
Researcher Dr Thomas Hinderling proposes just that: building huge floating solar panel islands 5km across, with designs suitable for use on sea and on land. Dr Hinderling’s “most concrete partner” at the moment is the government of Ras al Khaimah, the northern-most Emirate in the United Arab Emirates, who are already building a prototype solar island in the desert. It’ll certainly get plenty of sun! It is hoped that this island will be generating by mid-2008.
But would this kind of thing work in more temperate climates? Believe it or not, plans are afoot to do the same thing on a smaller scale in… wait for it… Glasgow.
Local firm, ZM Architecture, have submitted plans to tether solar-panel “lilies” on the river Clyde where they will get maximum exposure to the sun. The energy they generate will be fed into the National Grid.
At present there seem to be no firm plans to go ahead with the Glasgow project, although ZM Architecture hope to develop a pilot project in partnership with the Glasgow Science Centre.
So, two similar project but on massively different scales. I can certainly see the UAE project working out, but is solar power in a Scottish city centre going to make much difference to the environment?
What do you think?
(photo credit: BBC News)
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