When it comes to combating climate change, many strategies require relatively small actions by large numbers of people. Millions of us are installing heat pumps, switching to electric cars and avoiding meat from our diets. But given the scale of the challenge, some argue that we too need to think bigger and bolder.
They’re talking about bold infrastructure projects that cost billions of dollars and are high-risk, but which, if done well, could have a truly transformative impact on our faltering efforts to reduce carbon emissions to zero and could even reduce the worst impacts of current warming. These include plans to build giant solar power plants in space, green vast desert areas, and shore up melting glaciers to stem rising sea levels that threaten cities.
Here we consider five of the most promising green megaprojects, weigh their prospects, and explore what needs to happen next to make them successful. What kind of impact could they actually have? And can they really be done?
Launching a solar power plant into space
Clouds may be a source of inspiration for poets and romantics, but they are nothing but a nuisance to solar engineers. No matter how efficient your solar panels are, when the sky is cloudy, the power output drops to almost zero. But moving that solar panel into space eliminates this problem. In orbit, the satellite is bathed in a constant stream of sunlight, allowing it to generate electricity at maximum capacity almost all the time.
Source: www.newscientist.com
