| by Jonathan Margolis, The Observer. Relevant to Energy Use chapter
10. Excerpt: Philipp Saumweber is creating a miracle in the barren
Australian outback, growing tonnes of fresh food.…a 33-year-old German
former Goldman Sachs banker but inspired by a London theatre lighting
engineer of 62, have bought a sizeable lump of this unpromising outback
territory and built on it an experimental greenhouse which holds the
seemingly realistic promise of solving the world's food problems. …using
the sun to desalinate seawater for irrigation and to heat and cool
greenhouses as required, and thence cheaply grow high-quality,
pesticide-free vegetables year-round in commercial quantities. …A 75m
line of motorised parabolic mirrors that follow the sun all day focuses
its heat on a pipe containing a sealed-in supply of oil. The hot oil in
turn heats nearby tanks of seawater pumped up from a few metres below
ground – the shore is only 100m away. The oil brings the seawater up to
160C and steam from this drives turbines providing electricity. Some of
the hot water from the process heats the greenhouse through the cold
desert nights, while the rest is fed into a desalination plant that
produces the 10,000 litres of fresh water a day needed to keep the
plants happy…. Read the full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/24/growing-food-in-the-desert-crisis |
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