My cursory Google says that it’s not impossible. So why?
EDIT: Answer seems to be that (politics aside) practically it’s cost prohibitive and the tech can’t transfer the energy over the distance required.
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Aside from reasons like lobbying, “the cost isn’t warranted” etc., there are actual objective reasons why you solar farms haven’t been built in really sunny but desolated places yet.
One is that the places are desolate. You still have to build those massive solar farms. For that you need the people and materials to build them. It would take months to years, which means you’d need to build out infrastructure to house people in places that are… Desolate. Nobody lives there for a reason. While less so than Sahara, this would be a problem even in Australia. That’s significantly more cost to the project.
Another is an offshoot of the first. While solar panels don’t have lubricants or moving parts, they still need maintenance. And they do have limited service lives. And you’d be putting them in the middle of nowhere (see above), in an environment that is dry and dusty, so they’d actually need MORE maintenance than normal. Otherwise you’d quickly start losing power. And even if you install some dust prevention systems, THOSE will then need power and maintenance, and increase the cost of the panels.
So yeah, it’s not impossible, just a logistical headache that nobody wants to take responsibility for atm.
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