Desert energy?

I read this interesting story on a possible massive solar panel farm in the Sahara desert, almost the size of Wales that could power all of Europe’s energy needs in the future. Southern Spain & Portugal already provide their citizens above average levels of solar derived energy and this seems a great renewable way of powering the continent. This will be an interesting one to watch. The article goes on to propose a potential European HV super grid combining electric delivered over high voltage direct current so that different countries could export and trade energy more efficiently than the current AC system. Whether the political will to implement such a scheme would go beyond Sarkozy and Browns current tacit backing for the idea, we'll have to see.