Green the deserts by using seawater to cool greenhoues

Source: nextbigfuture.com:

Photo: An oasis of green technologies: 1. Concentrated Solar Power; 2. Saltwater greenhouses; 3. Outside vegetation and evaporative hedges; 4. Photovoltaic Solar Power; 5. Salt production; 6. Halophytes; 7. Algae production

Norwegian biologist Joakim Hauge wants to green the deserts using greenhouses that are cooled by seawater. He and other researchers plan to grow 1,200 cucumbers per square metre per year in new greenhouses.

In March, temperatures outside were in the 30s (celsius), but in the low 20s in the greenhouse. In August, it can reach 50 °C outside, but the greenhouse needs to stay below 30 °C for crops to thrive. Hauge is confident that it will. As head of the rather grandly named Sahara Forest Project, the private Norwegian company that built and runs the prototype, he has a lot riding on its success.

Keeping the greenhouse cool and humid reduces the plants' need for fresh water, but it still has to come from somewhere. The answer again is seawater. A concentrated solar power system provides the heat and electricity needed to desalinate seawater for irrigation, as well as power all the pumps, fans and other machinery. This is the purpose of the 300 square metres of parabolic mirrors, which track the sun and focus its rays onto a pipe containing oil.

But the prototype is more than just a souped-up greenhouse. The aim is to use seawater to maximum effect.

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