This Is How Clean Energy Could Bring More Rain to Africa

Africa's Sahara desert is a great source of sun and wind, making it a prime location for solar and wind energy. And although installing this clean energy by shifting from fossil fuels would prove beneficial to climate change, it may also come with other benefits.

What more benefits could there be than the many that come with green energy? Well, studies have shown that it may also create more rain. Yes, you read that right. Equipping the Sahara desert with clean energy may bring more much-needed rain to Africa.

A 2018 study ran computer models to see what would be the environmental result of equipping the Sahara desert with wind turbines and solar panels. For starters, they found that these turbines and panels would produce over four times more power than what the entire human race uses in a year.

But that's not all. They found that the climate got hotter except in the Sahel region, where the temperature slightly decreased due to an increase in plants. Where did those plants come from? They came from an increase in rain.

Once that happened, the plants themselves caused even more rain, which caused even more plants and so forth. It's a positive feedback loop that could see the Sahel region green with vegetation.

Now, only one question remains. Why haven't we equipped the Sahara desert with clean energy yet?