An ambitious project to pipe salt water from the Red Sea into the arid coastal city of Aqaba, Jordan, could turn the region into an oasis. A 50-acre demonstration facility, which will combine two technologies -- seawater greenhouses and concentrated solar power -- to grow crops, produce carbon neutral energy and desalinate seawater, has received approval from the government of Jordan and could be operational by 2012, with full-scale commercial use going online in 2015.
The novel development is from the Sahara Forest Project, an environmental technology group based in Norway. Back to 2009, the group presented their idea at the UN's Copenhagen climate conference. After which, the team won an audience with Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan. Convinced that the project would be worth trying in his country, he made a deal to pilot a desert forest in the Aqaba Special Economic Zone
A structure, called a seawater greenhouse, will capitalize on the abundance of sun in Jordan and use it to evaporate seawater and condense it into fresh water. While this happens, a naturally cool and humid environment will be created -- perfect for growing crops.
Energy to run the facility will come from a concentrated solar power plant, which will use mirrors to focus sunlight onto pipes of fluid. The super-heated fluid boils and the steam is captured to drive a turbine generator, which produces electricity.
Though arid coastal locations are ideal, a forest project could still be used further inland. Several arid areas in the Sarhara are below sea level, making it relatively inexpensive to deliver water to the facility without costly pumping fees. The Qattara Depression in Egypt, for example, is about 435 feet below sea level -- a drop that could be exploited for hydro-electric power, too.
The technology could also be used to tranform existing, large-scale greenhouses used to grow acres of crops, into more efficient facilities. According to the Sarah Forest Project, in the south of Spain, the regions of Murcia and Almeria together have nearly 100,000 acres of greenhouses that consume five times more water than the area receives rainfall. Water from the Ebra River in the north of Spain has been diverted to the area to make up for the lack of rain and 20 fossil-fuel powered desalination plants are also online in order to accommodate irrigation.
These options are unsustainable, degrade the natural environment and pollute the air. Innovative ideas such as the Sahara Forest Project work with the environment, not against it. If successful, it could be a model food and energy facility for the future.
[via Science]
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