muratart/Shutterstock

When picturing the Sahara Desert, besides the endless sand, you'll also imagine blue skies and a blazing sun. While it might seem like the perfect place for a vast solar farm, climate scientists found that building such facilities on a massive scale there could have significant consequences not only for the Sahara, but also for the climate thousands of miles away.

A 2020 study investigated what might happen if huge solar farms, like those in Tibet , were built across the Sahara. Solar panels are darker than the Sahara's pale sand, so panels would absorb more sunlight and affect how heat is exchanged between the land and the atmosphere. In the researchers' model, the warming surface could alter air circulation, leading to more rainfall. Increased vegetation, as has also been observed around solar farms in China , could then reinforce the warming and wetter conditions.…