The largest desert stretching a distance of 3.55 Million square miles might experience a transformation in vegetation and rainfall.According to scientists,installation of wind and solar farms may even supply energy to the whole globe and rainfall to this arid sky a factor that would boost the sahara real estate value.
Vegetation in the sahara serves as a covering absorbing sunlight hence warming the ground, whereas the large area of sand reflects the sun’s rays, leaving the ground relatively cooler.Fragrant soil then drives hot air upwards, wringing moisture out of the atmosphere as it condenses and falls back to the earth as rain.
From the parched sands in the face of this vicious cycle, however, researchers are getting creative as Eugenia Kalnay one of the study authors explained.The same cycle could go in the opposite way increasing precipitation and vegetation.By covering 20 percent of the Sahara with solar panels,sun’s rays would be converted into energy while absorbing which would be the same case with vegetation. The warm earth would then push warm air upward encouraging rain.This would allow vegetation to spring in this dry land.Alternatively, scientists could install a supply of wind turbines to generate power but concentration of many wind farms may slow local wind speeds and push masses of warm and cool air together. Combined, the reduced wind speeds and turbulence would buoy air masses upwards, encouraging the formation of rain clouds.
Solar panels and wind turbines would temporary boost vegetation cover. Reintroducing plants in the region would account for about 80 percent increase in rainfall years to come.Kalnay and her colleague Yan Li modeled a scenario to study the effects, as well as a third that combined solar and wind energy, generating 82 terawatts of electrical way more than 18 terawatts used globally.In the researchers’ model,while solar panels best wind farms in energy production, turbines seem to produce the larger climate impact, roughly doubling predicted precipitation. Together, the technologies increased rainfall by about 150 percent.
Addition of solar panels and wind farms would also increase the average temperature in the region by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit..The models works best with less efficient solar panels. As technology accelerates, solar panels that better at converting energy the ground warm air needed to produce rainfall thus decreasing local precipitation.In regions like Sahel,residents suffer due to lack of freshwater and would feel the impact if such a scheme would come to life. Precipitation rate could even jump by nearly 20 inches per year according to the model, the scientists report today in the journal Science.
“In terms of willingness, yes, people are certainly willing and able to construct dozens of energy plants in the deserts and semi-deserts of Africa,”Stated archeologist David Wright bringing hope to this highly anticipated project.