> There would, however, be limitations on where and how this technology could be applied. Concentrated-solar plants generally only work in very sunny areas, and you can’t ship heat over long distances. So industrial companies that want to take advantage of this process may have to build new plants near these solar thermal facilities, or vice versa.

> “The middle of the desert is not typically an industrial hub,” says Julio Friedmann, a senior research scholar at the Center for Global Energy Policy and lead author of the report.

Aluminum was made in the Pacific Northwest because of cheap and abundant electricity from hydroelectric dams.

Move to where the resource is. That may turn out to be the desert.

https://www.nwcouncil.org/reports/columbia-river-history/alu...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest#Economy