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Comment by tails4e | Hacker News Reader

That's a stretch. We're literally talking about arid almost-wasteland. A few sq miles is a small portion, yet will provide clean power. The cost benefit is abundantly clear.

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I urge you to pick up and read Desert Solitaire[0] and reconsider your 'wasteland' statement.

Benefit/cost might be there, but for a project costing 22B it would be sensible to study and quantify.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire

As depressing as it is, better destroying that env than the more rich env

IMO as a planet we should try to move beyond that sort of colonialism. Yes the UK is a richer country, but that doesn't make their ecosystem inherently more valuable.

I would say more diverse because the weather allows it

One could argue that the environment in UK is already destroyed, why protect that instead of something that is still relatively untouched?

But like, it is someone else's country. They just may not like the look of it and that would be the end of the story, maybe move on to ocean based solar+current hybrid power generators?

What’s wrong with a country exporting their solar resources? An arid resource less desert can become an economic boon.

Why are you asking me that as if I made that claim?

Morroco is the one pushing for it, in this case. It's not like the nation state in question is being forced into it. They see it as a major opportunity to export energy, a famously lucrative enterprise for countries.

I didn't dispute that, i just said the value of it is not the only consideration, you still need to test it out before deciding, regardless of who pushed for it.

Also the possible political leverage is substantial one. At least in short term.

They should into becoming a low cost synth hydrocarbon exporter. They would take over using current infrastructure.

The article discusses this. Egypt are apparently starting to produce a lot of green hydrogen for export to Europe.

Green hydrogen is definetly not a hydrocarbon.

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