Bio-mimicry
A couple of thousand years ago, large parts of the Sahara were covered with vegetation. By using nature’s own methods, the desert landscape can again be covered with vegetation. Why not mimic nature when we are creating future solutions for energy supplies? Bio-mimicry is the name given to the method on which the Sahara Forest Project (SFP) is based.
The main pillars on which the project rests are salt water greenhouses, concentrated solar energy, and the cultivation of traditional crops along with energy crops such as algae. The goal is that this combination of tested technologies will ensure that dry areas will become fertile by turning salt water into fresh water through an economically viable environmental project.
Concentrated solar energy provides the power for driving pumps and fans. By means of the greenhouses, sea water evaporates into fresh water. The damp, cool air provides good growing conditions inside the greenhouses. The fresh water is used for crops and re-vegetation in the surrounding dry areas, and in the concentrated-solar-energy plant, which requires large amounts of water.
“The beauty of the Sahara Forest Project is that you can employ principles from nature, to reverse damage inflicted by unsustainable human usage and turn barren land into biologically productive land”, says Michael Pawlyn.
Michael Pawlyn is one of the world’s leading bio-architects, founder of Exploration Architecture, and one of the partners of the Sahara Forest Project. He previously designed the famous Eden Project in Cornwall, England, in which the various parts of the building contain their own ecosystems. In the Sahara Forest Project he has formed a partnership with the prize-winning designer of the Seawater Greenhouse, Charlie Paton, Director Bill Watts from Max Fordham Consulting Engineers and the Bellona Foundation.
Nature manages an infinite number of tasks – without creating waste. It is such a system that the four partners wish to create. The technologies are well tested. Concentrated solar energy is already used in the world’s largest solar power plant. Saltwater greenhouses have been tried out in various test centres, including in Tenerife and Oman.
“Through the Sahara Forest Project, poor countries in the south can produce, and in time perhaps export, their own clean energy rather than importing dirty fossil-fuel energy”, says the president of the Bellona Foundation Frederic Hauge.
In the course of 6 hours the world’s deserts receive more solar energy than the world’s population uses in a year. A number of initiatives are aiming to begin reaping this CO2-free source of energy through concentrated solar power. The technology will in many cases consume large amounts of water and much of the energy is lost as heat. The Sahara Forest Project will enable a large-scale development of concentrated solar power in which the surplus heat is used to convert sea water into fresh water. The system thereby creates a large surplus of fresh water that can be used to irrigate barren areas.
Read more:
www.asknature.org
www.saharaforestproject.com
www.edenproject.com
