Solar energy powers vegetable farms in the desert

Published Apr 1, 2017

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Rome - With scorching

summer temperatures and little rainfall, the barren scrublands

around the port of Aqaba in Jordan, one of the world's most arid

countries, might seem ill suited to cultivating cucumbers.

Yet a Norwegian company is setting up a solar-powered, 20

hectare facility that promises to grow a variety of

vegetables without wasting a drop of fresh water.

"We take what we have enough of - sunlight, carbon dioxide,

seawater and desert - to produce what we need more of - food

water and energy," said Joakim Hauge, chief executive of the

Sahara Forest Project (SFP).

Harnessing abundant resources to generate scarce ones will

be key to feeding a growing global population, set to reach 9

billion by 2050, without damaging the environment or

accelerating climate change, he said.

Food production must rise by about 60 percent by 2050 to

generate enough for everyone to eat, according to the United

Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Agriculture already accounts for 70 percent of global fresh

water use, while the food sector is responsible for more than 20

percent of planet-warming emissions and 30 percent of world

energy consumption.

"We can no longer make solutions that come at the expense of

other sectors," said Hauge. "There is a need for a more

integrated approach".

The Aqaba complex, set to open in the summer, evaporates

salt water piped from the nearby Red Sea to cool greenhouses,

creating conditions for crops to grow all year round.

Sea water is also desalinated to generate salt and fresh

water for irrigation, while vapour from greenhouses is used to

humidify surrounding patches of parched land so plants can grow.

Agriculture of tomorrow?

SFP said a pilot project in the Gulf state of Qatar

generated cucumber yields comparable to those of European farms.

Plans are underway to expand operations to Tunisia.

But FAO experts said high costs involved limited the

potential of such projects to ramp up food production on a

global scale.

"You need a lot of energy and a lot of money so...the

question may arise whether the same resources could be put to

better use," said FAO natural resources officer Alessandro

Flammini.

To be financially viable, production must focus on

high-value crops, like cucumbers and tomatoes, which poor

countries might find cheaper to import, said Flammini, who

analysed the Qatar pilot for a 2014 FAO report.

"It's an interesting concept for fulfilling local needs and

especially in terms of food independence and to meet the demand

of a niche market," he said.

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The Aqaba complex had a $3.7 million budget and received

financial support from Norway, the European Union and other

investors, according to SFP.

Hauge said besides producing food, the complex, which will

include a laboratory and research facilities, would produce side

benefits by greening arid areas and creating jobs.

"We believe that this is part of the agriculture of

tomorrow," the biologist-turned-entrepreneur told the Thomson

Reuters Foundation by phone.

From Australia to Somalia

Several other companies are employing similar technologies

in other arid corners of the world.

In 2016, UK-based agribusiness Sundrop Farms Holding opened a vast greenhouse for tomato farming in the Australian

outback near Port Augusta, 300 km north of Adelaide.

The facility runs on energy mostly produced by a 115 metre

solar tower that draws sunlight from 23 000 mirrors surrounding

it.

"Traditional agriculture is wasteful in terms of water and

fossil fuels. In addition, unprotected crops are at the mercy of

the elements, causing gaps in supply, quality issues and price

spikes," Sundrop's CEO Philipp Saumweber said in an email.

The company has signed a 10-year contract to supply

Australian supermarket chain Coles with truss tomatoes and

received investments of about $100 million from private equity

firm KKR & Co, according to a 2014 statement.

"While the capital expenditure required to build our farms

is slightly more expensive due to its cutting-edge nature, we

reap the benefits of this initial investment in the long run

through savings of fossil inputs," said Saumweber.

Around seven thousand miles away, in sunbaked and

drought-hit Somaliland, another British-based venture, Seawater

Greenhouse, is setting up a pilot facility aimed at making

high-tech greenhouse production more affordable.

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"We have eliminated using fans," said British inventor

Charlie Paton, a former business partner of Saumweber, who

pioneered the use of solar energy and salt water for irrigation

in the 1990s.

"We designed [the greenhouse] to be cool by exploiting the

prevailing wind. So it's a wind-cooled greenhouse," he said in a

phone interview.

The one-hectare complex, which received funding from the

British government, cost about $100 000, he said, adding he

expected it to produce around 30 tonnes of tomatoes a year and

16 litres of drinking water a day for irrigation and livestock.

Paton said he hoped the greenhouse, which employs mostly

local staff, would serve as a hub for expansion across the Horn

of Africa.

"The region gets a lot of humanitarian aid and that's

arguably detrimental because if you give free food to people you

put farmers out of business," he said.

"It has more chances of success if people can make money out

of it." 

THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION

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