Most of the current innovation in farming focuses on improving the production by genetically engineering crops and livestock. To increased resilience to disease or better weather adaptability. However, the new way is not to change what we farm, but to change how we farm!
Sundrop Farms in Australia is using a combination of seawater and solar power to grow food.
Plants are being grown in the middle of a desert, completely independent of nonrenewable resources.
Every single day, seawater is being pumped from the Spencer Gulf to the farm. The water is being destilated. The farm's distillery produces up to 1 million liters of fresh water every day . The water is the used to irrigate 18,000 tomato plants inside a greenhouse.
The farm is powered by solar energy, 23,000 mirrors focus sunlight onto a receiver tower 115 meters.
The farm uses the method of solar concentrated thermal energy. It produce up to 39 megawatts of energy per day.
No pesticides and herbicides are used since the plants are grown in coconut husks and seawater sterilizes the air.
The whole idea behind Sundrop Farms is not about creating new technology but more about combining existing technologies in a new way.
With the effects of climate change being more and more visible, this method might be the right way to go!
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Source: http://www.sundropfarms.com/
https://futurism.com/first-of-its-kind-farm-uses-seawater-and-solar-power-to-grow-crops/
love the idea of independence and off-grid
Earth gets colder sometimes. I love green houses and farms and that is very good. I love to have solar panels. I love to collect cans of food for food banks.
Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
https://futurism.com/first-of-its-kind-farm-uses-seawater-and-solar-power-to-grow-crops/
is there a side product as well ..sea salt ?
It is possible ! Personally found no information about it though!
It seems like an excellent and innovative approach!! For a project like this to be adopted it isn't enough to show it is technologically feasible. It also has to make sense economically. There would have to be a significant installed and maintenance cost for a system that produces 1 million liters of water a day. Is the profit from 18,000 tomatoes enough to justify the cost. I realize that there are other concerns that should matter more than economics but realistically money matters. Hopefully they can show that the economics are as desirable as the environmental benefits