The world's largest solar farm rises in the remote Egyptian desert

From LA Times

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In 1913 on the outskirts of Cairo, an inventor from Philadelphia named Frank Shuman built the world’s first solar thermal power station, using the abundant Egyptian sunshine to pump 6,000 gallons of water a minute from the Nile to irrigate a nearby cotton field.

World War I and the discovery of cheap oil derailed Shuman’s dream of replicating his “sun power plant” on a grand scale and eventually producing enough energy to challenge the world’s dependence on coal.

More than a century later, that vision has been resurrected. The world’s largest solar park, the $2.8-billion Benban complex, is set to open next year 400 miles south of Cairo in Egypt’s Western Desert.

It will single-handedly put Egypt on the clean energy map.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-egypt-green-power-20180730-story.html

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I get that this is a great location for harvesting energy from the sun but I wonder about using solar for crypto mining. With mining also comes worries about heat and so I wonder if a trade off is necessary for optimal energy conservation. My guess is that it wouldn't make much sense to use solar power in Egypt to mine crypto because off all the energy required to cool the equipment. If you go some where cooler you are likely also going to have to deal with more drastic shifts in seasonal light. It seems like Iceland takes the cake as the best place due to easy cooling and geo thermal energy.

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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