[deegles]

Would it be more efficient to use solar thermal for some of the desalination instead of $10b worth or regular solar?

[martythemaniak]

It is probably cheaper to do Solar PV due to unit economics rather than overall system efficiency. There's been a lot written on learning curves and wright's law, but rate of improvement is driven by design complexity and need for customization. Concentrating solar is both more complicated and needs more site customization, whereas solar pv modules are simpler and fly out of factories by the millions.

This is a wonderful table: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_...

From this post: https://www.volts.wtf/p/which-technologies-get-cheaper-over

[gorkish]

If efficiency is the metric you're going for, move the people and do nothing. It's probably what will happen eventually anyway.

[chmod775]

I'm going to go out on a limb and claim there's more than enough water for the people - the area is just unsuitable for the economic activity a small fraction of those people engages in. Move that.

[missedthecue]

Moving 50 million people seems to me to incur more effort than building $10b of solar

[konschubert]

Yea but that wouldn’t be disruptive so it’s no fun /s