Saharan sand and sun may one day power half the world

New Scientist : A joint initiative by universities in Japan and Algeria, the Sahara Solar Breeder Project, is working to build enough solar power stations by 2050 to supply 50% of the energy used by people. The idea is to begin by building a small number of silicon manufacturing plants in the Sahara, each turning the desert sand into the high-quality silicon needed to build solar panels. Once those panels are operating, some of the energy they generate will be used to build more silicon plants, each churning out more solar panels and generating more energy that can be used to build even more plants, and so on, writes Michael Fitzpatrick for New Scientist.