The Australian alternative for a rapid start

Geographical and political advantage of Australia compared with Northern Africa

The deserts  of Australia may become an alternative to an Arabian start of the energy project. Australia is a stable continent which remains undisturbed from wold quarrels. It is a continent state with one government capable to make decisions spanning over the whole territory.

Desertification is increasing rapidly and clean renewable energy is desperately needed for desalination of water and fuel for transportation.

Sandstorms are not as heavy and do not occur so often as known from the Arabian deserts.

The future of solar energy in Australia

Photovoltaic technology is improving rapidly and new arrays using Tandem Organic Solar Concentrator arays which promise more than 20 per cent effectiveness.

Using the the Simpson Desert  the resulting electricity may supply the great cities  and the production of hydrogen  for exportation may be situated near Adelaide  to use water from the Murray River and the Darling River. Shipping of hydrogen containers might take place  at Adelaide port.

Solar insolation during the seasons [1]
Monthly Averaged Insolation Incident On A Horizontal Surface (kWh/m2/day)

Land	Jan	Feb	March	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Average
Australia	7,07	6,11	4,95	3,82	2,82	2,44	2,67	3,57	4,84	6,01	6,69	7,06	4,83
Saudi Arabia	3,68	4,59	5,33	6,17	7,12	8,07	7,68	7,19	6,36	5,33	3,93	3,31	5,73
USA	2,29	3,21	4,45	5,51	6,37	7,05	6,74	6,09	5,09	3,74	2,52	2,08	4,59
Thar Desert, India	4,0	4,68	5,67	6,52	6,92	6,70	5,57	5,19	5,34	4,75	4,07	3,57	5,25
Germany	0,61	1,34	2,44	3,93	5,25	5,38	5,26	4,45	2,85	1,50	0,76	0,50	2,86

Best performance through the seasons of the year are found in the Arabian deserts and the Thar Desert of India. However, Australia is a good candidate for the project because of its political stability, and it could supply the booming market of hydrogen in Asia.

 The Indian Start

The Thar Desert India
Note that the Thar Desert in India is also a promising location for a solar energy  and hydrogen production to alleviate the energy shortage in the region. It is near great cities like Delhi. Technology and rapidly expanding car production  may lead to the development of hydrogen in both both systems: Using fuel cells or in conventional piston  based engines.

The US desert solar energy alternative
The deserts of the Western States of the US present best conditions for the start of a solar/hydrogen economy. With rapid increasing  gas prices, investments in this new economy are extremely  attractive. USA is the highest greenhouse gas  producer. It has no plans to solve its dependence on fossil fuels. Hydrogen from solar energy, using water from the Colorado River could strengthen the US economic situation. Reducing the US CO2 emission would help to protect the world climate.

[1] NASA Surface meteorology and Solar Energy
http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/sse/grid.cgi