Response to Christine's Question #4

4. I want you to position yourself as an interface delivering a message on an environmental “leapfrog” (real or pretend). Here is the scenario: you are a reporter of some type (newspaper, online blog, weather girl/boy, etc) who has a short amount of time to present the leapfrog and provide just a few interesting facts on it. You need to consider who your audience is, what your ultimate message is, and how to make the biggest impact in this short amount of time.

Make a video, write a new brief, or maybe write up a dialogue. The options are endless.

(Based on the technology mentioned in this article: “Sun and sand breed Sahara solar power” at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19785-sun-and-sand-breed-sahara-solar-power.html)

Me: Hello, and welcome back to Cathy’s online radio talk show, purveyor of two-minute technology talks since November 2010! Today we have with us Dr. Hideomi Koinuma of the Sahara Solar Breeder Project, a collaboration between universities in Japan and Algeria. This project aims to build a series of self-perpetuating solar plants in the Sahara Desert, with the hope of building enough solar power stations by 2050 to supply 50 percent of the world’s energy. Dr. Koinuma, will you please tell us more about your project?

Dr. Koinuma: Thank you for inviting me to your show! My group is working on the premise of “breeding” clean energy. Our plan is to build a small number of silicon manufacturing plants along the edge of the Sahara Desert, taking advantage of large amounts of silica in the area. These plants will manufacture solar panels out of sand from the desert. These solar panels will then be set up in solar farms inside the Sahara and used to generate electricity. We’ll then sell the electricity in order to finance the construction of additional silicon manufacturing plants. These plants will produce more solar panels, which will help set up more farms, which will produce more electricity, which will in turn generate more money for more manufacturing plants. The cycle will continue until we have enough manufacturing plants and solar farms in the Sahara to supply, hopefully, up to 50 percent of the world’s energy needs!

Me: That sounds great, Dr. Koinuma! If this idea really takes off, there won’t be any need to build dirty coal-fired plants in Africa—all the continent’s burgeoning energy needs can be met using renewable solar energy, without taking up agricultural land or requiring expensive imported equipment. Let’s hope this enables Africa to “leap-frog” into energy plenitude without requiring destructive mining or polluting power plants in order to get there!