A recent report published just last week by the University of Illinois and the University of Maryland has highlighted the possibility that scientists may be able to bring rainfall and greenery back to the ever-expanding Sahara Desert. As for how scientists would do it, a massive wind and solar farm installed over a 9-million square kilometer area in the desert would raise local temperature, precipitation and vegetation by such a significant amount that farm life could become completely possible.
As for why this would work, Eugenia Kalnay, a co-researcher of the study, said “The rainfall increase is a consequence of complex land-atmosphere interactions that occur because solar panels and wind turbines create rougher and darker land surfaces,” adding “This increase in precipitation, in turn, leads to an increase in vegetation cover, creating a positive feedback loop.”
As for what the co-researcher, Safa Motesharrei, had to say, he expressed the positive benefits in a short statement that read “The increase in rainfall and vegetation, combined with clean electricity as a result of solar and wind energy, could help agriculture, economic development and social well-being in the Sahara, Sahel, Middle East and other nearby regions.”
