Instead of building a wall on the USA-Mexico border just for security purposes, why not build a solar array structure that also provides electric power to border states on both sides and provides economic benefits as well?

That’s what engineer/inventor Ken Clements is proposing with his “Friendship Solar Array Project,” which could “generate about 1,500 megawatts (assuming a 1000 mile array of solar panels 30 feet wide), pay for itself in less than a decade, and provide jobs and good will on both sides while eliminating the need to build polluting power plants,” Clements told KurzweilAI.net in an exclusive interview.

He is also proposing to use electricity generated by the panels to run solar desalinization plants, bringing in water from the Gulf of California and making pure water available to Southern California, Arizona, and Northern Mexico.

“The economy of scale would also drive down the cost of solar panels and make solar power more affordable to the general public,” he added.