The deserts of the world could provide enough electricity for vast populous regions of the world and do it in a clean and sustainable way—at least until the sun explodes in 5 billion years.

Question: Of all the alternative energies under research, what one are you most excited about?

Sachs:    There are many options for the world in energy ahead.  I think if we look out in the not so distant future, solar power is going to be a phenomenal promise especially in the poorest places.  Often, in the tropics, there’s plenty of sunshine and seemingly little else right now in terms of energy availability.  But with advances in concentrated solar thermal power, concentrated solar photovoltaics, there are tremendous, tremendous opportunities.  After all, the deserts of the world, the Sahara, the Atacama, the Mohave, the Gobi could provide enough electricity for vast populous regions of the world and do it in a clean and sustainable way, at least, sustainable for about 5 billion years according to the physicists.  We’d have a good, long-term, clean, safe energy system that could actually be the point of take-off for many of the world’s poorest regions.