Recently, the US president Donald Trump, has proposed to install solar panels on the wall he wants to build on the border with MexicoIn order to finance the wall with the sale of the energy produced, and always according to him, in this way the Mexican country "has to pay much less money."
“We are thinking of building the wall as a solar wall, something that creates energy and is self-financing. In this way Mexico will have to pay much less money. It makes sense, doesn't it? ”Trump said during a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Despite its repeated statements that Mexico would pay the bill, the neighboring country has rejected the idea that it is going to pay for that work, whose cost has been calculated between 8.000 and 40.000 million dollars.
Photovoltaic wall
The idea of Placing solar panels on the wall had already been circulating in Washington for two weeks, since the president spoke about it in a private meeting with a group of Republican lawmakers on June 6, but until now Trump had not raised that possibility in public.
The think tank Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has cautiously welcomed this recognition of renewable energy, for which President Trump had not shown much support so far.
"We are happy to hear that the President appreciates the many benefits of solar power," SEIA spokesman Dan Whitten said in a statement. «We agree that this would be an economical and environmentally friendly approach, but we will wait to know more about this plan to comment more, "he added.
Trump assured that this "singular idea" was his, because he is "a builder", and that the audience in Iowa was "the first group" to whom he had communicated it.
"Down there it is one of the places where solar energy works really well. And we think we could make (the wall) look beautiful, too, ”Trump said.
In spite of Trump's claim that the "solar wall" idea is his, Multiple US media attribute it to one of the dozens of proposals sent by different companies that have participated in the public bid to build the wall.
The company His name is Gleason Partners, whose founder Tom Gleason told The Washington Post this month that his design would generate two megawatts of electricity per mile, enough energy to supply 350 homes.
Not everything is gold that glitters
Quite a few people have been more skeptical about launching such a project. According to those responsible for Community Power Network, for solar energy to be profitable and efficient, it is necessary that buyers and users are not installed too far from the source of production.
These panels are going to be in the middle of the desert. It's hard to know who is going to buy this energy“It must also be taken into account that the wall, which is estimated to cover 3.200 kilometers in length, is going to cross several states.
This not only implies different regulations but also different partners at the level of the energy producing companies or the distributors. For Edward Alden, of the Council on Foreign Relations, “a wall of solar panels would be better than just a barricade, but the long distances between this border and the places where the energy will be consumed puts this project in danger of being not very profitable«. "I don't think the administration really seriously considered this idea," Alden told AFP.
A wall covered in solar panels, positioned at a suitable angle to capture sunlight, would certainly generate a lot of energy if the regulatory and technical difficulties are removed. According to several companies in the photovoltaic sector, they estimate that a three-meter-high wall covered with panels would generate 7,28 gigawatt-hours of electricity per day, enough to power 220.000 medium-consumption households.
The cost of this facility would rise between 1.400 million and 4.200 million. According to another estimate, which evaluates to 6 million dollars for each 1,6 kilometers of wall built, 2 MW of electricity would be produced per hour, and the wall would be self-financing in 20 years.