- Seawater Greenhouse
The Seawater Greenhouse is an established technology with the potential to create surplus fresh water from
seawater , using a novel form ofgreenhouse that also provides ideal food-growing conditions inarid regions. Three such units have been built so far.Awards
The technology won the Tech Museum Award for a 2006 project in
Oman , [ [http://www.techawards.org/laureates/stories/index.php?id=139 Tech Museum Award 2006] ] and was a finalist in the 2007 St Andrews Prize for the Environment. [ [http://www.thestandrewsprize.com/press/11_04_07.htm St Andrews Prize for the Environment] ]Projects
Proposals for the Seawater Greenhouse include the Sahara Forest Project [The Sahara Forest Project http://www.exploration-architecture.com/section.php?xSec=35] [web cite |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/02/alternativeenergy.solarpower |title=Seawater greenhouses to bring life to the desert |date=2008-08-03 |publisher=The Guardian] [ [http://www.thefutureofscience.org/speaker/abstract/PatonCharlie.pdf Fourth World Conference on the Future of Science "Food and Water for Life" - Venice, September 24-27, 2008] ] , a scheme that aims to provide fresh water, food and renewable energy in hot arid regions as well as re-vegetating areas of uninhabited desert. This ambitious proposal combines the Seawater Greenhouse and
concentrating solar power (CSP) to achieve highly efficient synergies. CSP is increasingly seen as one of the most promising forms ofrenewable energy , producing electricity from sunlight at a fraction of the cost ofphotovoltaic s. By combining these technologies there is huge commercial potential to create a sustainable source of energy, food and water.The scheme is proposed at a significant scale such that very large quantities of seawater can be evaporated. By using a location that lies below sea level, this can be achieved without pumping and there is an opportunity to capture some of the substantial volumes of residual humidity that leave the greenhouses. A 20,000 hectare area of Seawater Greenhouses will evaporate a million tonnes of seawater per day. If the scheme were located upwind of higher terrain then the air carrying this ‘lost’ humidity would rise and contribute to forming mist, cloud and dew. It would then be possible to harvest this precipitate using
fog-nets that can supply tree saplings with water and thereby reverse the process ofdesertification , returning barren land to forest [The Sahara Forest Project - food, water, biomass from the uninhabited Sahara Desert http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/waterenergygroup/message/48] .The scheme was first publicly proposed to a group of energy specialists at the third [http://www.claverton-energy.com/ Claverton Energy Group] Conference held at the Headquarters of
Wessex Water Plc onApril 13 2008 .ee also
*
Desertification
*Perpetual harvest greenhouse system References
External links
* [http://www.seawatergreenhouse.com/ Seawater Greenhouse website]
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