This is The Sahara Project my grandfather made up with me:
On the western African coast and its surroundings, where the rocky Sahara desert lies, great fields of solar panels will be placed; they will generate a giant amount of energy. But instead of just providing plain electricity, the energy will be used to do this:
boil seawater to get water and salt
put iodide into the salt and sell it
using the electricity it will break down water to oxygen and hydrogen
export hydrogen as a fuel for cars, etc.
sell some of the oxygen to whoever wants it, and release the rest into the atmosphere
This project has many advantages:
efficiency: hydrogen is easy to store; electricity is not
logistics: hydrogen can be transported easily
burning hydrogen doesn't produce CO₂ or other bad things, just water
some of the distilled water can be distributed over Africa
this would create a bunch of working spaces — a few smart people would be needed, and a lot of any people (even those that can't read and write) to clean and maintain the panels and other utilities
this would upgrade Africa's political situation — they would have a giant source of money (mostly funded by other states)
no emissions
This project would have to have a giant investigation at the start, but would promote the world's economics. Water, fuel, salt and electricity prices would drop, and Russia and the Arabic states would go down. The institution would return to the countries in a couple of years.
Also, this project would make a great jump in technology. New technologies would have to be developed, like in America's moon project - when they started the project, it seemed impossible. But they did it, and some of the inventions from then are used today.
Is such a giant project achievable? I know it will never happen in reality, but that's because if the political situation, but I'm asking about the technical side of this. Is this technically possible?