Could we create vast solar power farms in desert waste land and store/transport power as synthetic fuel?
The loss of power you expect is the reason why we use AC power, and not DC power. ALL loss of power in a transmission line is due to resistance of the wire, what is called the “I*R loss”. AC power transmission overcomes this to the level that very very little power is lost in the transmission lines. Solar power farms do not make FUEL, they make electricity. Electricity canNOT be converted to FUEL — it can only be stored in a battery — and a battery to handle a solar farm would be too huge and expensive to consider manufacturing. So, the REAL answer to the problem is to use the solar farm to collect electrical energy, convert that electrical energy from DC to AC, and then transmit it.
