Saharan sun could power UK homes in £8bn solar farm plan

Up to 2.5 million British homes could be powered by Tunisian sunshine by 2018 under an £8bn plan to build a giant solar farm in the Sahara desert and ship the electricity to Europe through a 450km (280 miles) submarine cable, The Independent reports.

The proposed 100 sq km TuNur farm would host thousands of computer-controlled mirrors that track the sun and reflect the light back towards a central tower, which absorbs the heat into pipes filled with salt.

The hot salt will be used to heat water, creating steam that propels a turbine and generates energy. This would be transported to a substation near Rome through an underground cable and plugged into the European electricity network, at which point it would be shipped to the UK through a giant interconnector.

“This might seem like quite an extreme project, but the technology is all proven. We have identified a site, conducted a feasibility study and lined up potential investors,” Daniel Rich, chief operating officer of project developer Nur Energie, said.

Read more on The Independent website.