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There's more than one desert on the planet. Australia has a decently sized outback. The Southwestern US could accommodate a not-small chunk. Antarctica doesn't really need one, so that's 4 of the 7 continents. Europe and Asia are pretty far north, so might be harder there, but Chile's Atacama would potentially work as well for South America

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Or, you could just put them on the roofs of existing buildings. I mean, that's where you need the power right?

All you need then is a grid so you can off load excess power (you're going to have a lot of excess power, if you cover even one in ten roofs in a city) to some kind of storage method and draw back from that when the sun isn't shining.

I would think the environmental difference between a ceramic tile or metal roof and a solar panel roof is pretty minimal.

Asia is pretty big. Arabian, Gobi and Thar deserts are not that much north. They are also near densely populated areas of the Middle-east, East China and Gangetic Indian plains.

Yeah, Gobi would have a lot of potential. I just assumed the Sahara would cover the Arabian peninsula as well.

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