For now, the most efficient derivation of solar energy is electricity. Great strides are being made in converting light to electricity, and efficiency in this process will only increase. However, right now efficiency is relatively low; you need vast arrays of solar panels to get a decent amount of electricity. This requires two things: space, for lots of panels, and a place where there's lots of strong light for large portions of the day. Fortunately, we have deserts, and those have plenty of both.
The biggest deserts are in Africa; Africa could become a powerhouse of solar energy generation, with the right investment. This is great for them, because they need the industry.
The only problem is that the biggest consumers of electricity are the west and the east, both of which pretty far from Africa. Electricity doesn't travel well over long distances; there's a lot of loss that way.
One solution is to transform electricity into some other energy form, that's easier to transfer. One such form is Hydrogen. Hydrogen is good because it can be used in fuel cells to generate electricity, and it's also a physical medium, and we know how to transfer physical mediums pretty well. For example, it might be conceivable to build a pipe that would carry hydrogen through the Mediterranean or the Middle East to Europe and to Asia. How do you get hydrogen? Simple - bring the electricity to shore and convert water to Oxygen and Hydrogen.
None of this is new; I'm sure people thought about this already. My new idea is about getting the Hydrogen to North America, another big consumer of electricity. It's not a simple matter to build a pipe all the way through the Atlantic (or it would have been done already for Oil). today, supertankers are used, and I suppose they could continue to be used in the future. However, why not taking advantage of a key property of Hydrogen - being lighter than air - and creating a new mechanism of transport: the SuperZeppelin.
Build massively large Zeppelin balloons and fill them with Hydrogen, and fly them across to North America. they would really have to be big, and be made by very strong and very light material. I'm sure we have such polymers today, or if not, we'll have to develop them. The plus side is they will carry themselves in the air; you just need a smallish engine to push them forward.
You could build fleets of them that travel slowly, majestically over from Africa to the US. Then, deflated, ship them back on existing cargo flights. They could also double as cruise ships of freight carriers (at least in the one direction) and thus serve a dual purpose.
What a sight that would be - a hundred gigantic Zeppelins, single file, slowly and gracefully gliding through the sky. Nice, eh?
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