WHOI Chart

British Researchers have published a new study  indicating that an expanding pool of freshwater in the Arctic ocean may impact the Atlantic ocean currents which gives Europe a considerably milder climate than other countries at a similar latitude.

Using satellites to measure sea surface height from 1995 to 2010, scientists from University College London and Britain’s National Oceanography Centre have detected a bulge in the western Arctic’s sea surface, which has risen by about 150mm since 2002.  The volume of fresh water has increased by at least 8 000km³, or about 10% of all the fresh water in the Arctic Ocean. The fresh water comes from melting ice and river run-off.

The rise could be due to strong Arctic winds increasing an ocean current called the Beaufort Gyre, making the sea surface bulge upwards.  The Beaufort Gyre (“rotating pattern”) slowly swirls the surface waters of the Arctic basin, turning the Polar Ice Cap along with it. It makes one complete rotation about every 4 years.  Very little is known about the circulation patterns  in Arctic and there are several research projects working on modeling the climate impacts of changes such as wind direction and intensity as well as the salinity of the water.

If the wind changes direction, which happened between the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, the pool of fresh water could spill out into the rest of the Arctic Ocean and even into the north Atlantic Ocean, the study said.  Scientists are concerned that that this might disturb the Atlantic currents that have such a great influence on European weather patterns. These currents draw warm waters up from the tropics, maintaining milder temperatures in winter than would ordinarily be expected at northern European latitudes.   The European countries that would be most affected by such a shift in currents are Ireland, Great Britain and parts of northern mainland Europe such as The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

The team lead by Katherine Giles at University College London’s Centre for Polar Observations and Modelling, plans to investigate further the relationship between sea-ice cover and wind changes.  Their current study can be found in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Louisiana Coastal Wetlands-NOAA Photo

Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost land the size of Delaware—about 1880 square miles. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, if this trend continues, Louisiana will lose a wetland area larger than the size of Manhattan every year. These losses are a disaster not just for citizens who are seeing their land wash away, but for businesses, industry, and communities nation-wide.

Land loss in Louisiana is caused by many different factors. Dams and levees have made it possible for two million people to live in south Louisiana and for the state’s ports and navigation routes to support global commerce. But these water control structures have also channeled the Mississippi River and its tributaries into the Gulf of Mexico, depriving the wetlands of the fresh water and sediment they need. Dredging of canals for oil and gas exploration and pipelines provided our nation with critical energy supplies, but it also took a toll on the landscape, weakening marshes. Sea level rise and subsidence add further stress. Given the rapid pace of change, it is not possible to turn back the clock and return the coast to 20th Century conditions. New ways to live, work, and play in and around the Louisiana coast must be found.

To address this crisis the Louisiana Legislature passed Act 8 in 2006, which created the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA)  and required it to develop a coastal master plan every five years. The first master plan was approved by the legislature in 2007. The new master plan, now under public review, will be submitted to the legislature for approval this spring.

The CPRA’s Draft 2012 Coastal Master Plan is based on a two year analysis involving some of the state’s best scientists as well as national and international specialists. The state used this analysis to select 145 high performing projects that could deliver measurable benefits to our communities and coastal ecosystem over the coming decades. The plan shows that if these projects were fully funded, at a pricetag of $50 billion, we could substantially increase flood protection for communities and create a sustainable coast.

Public meetings are scheduled for January 23rd – 25th to citizens a chance to speak with the CPRA  face to face about the plan. At these meetings,  formal comments can be placed into the public record. After the public comment period ends, the CPRA will incorporate what was learned and finalize the plan in time to submit it to the Louisiana Legislature in early April.  If stakeholders are unable to attend a public meeting, there is a comment form available on the CPRA’s website.

Photo: Rhiannon Bird

What a terrible start to the new year for the world’oceans – another shipwreck leaking fuel and toxic cargo,  oil and phosphate, into the water.  The Panamanian-badged MV Tycoon broke from its mooring on Sunday at Christmas Island, an Australian  External Territory located in the Indian Ocean on the rim of South East Asia.  Rough conditions prevented authorities from stopping oil and phosphate leaking off the cargo ship as it broke up and started sinking  yesterday.  The fifteen crew members were successfully rescued.

The Island is considered to have high conservation value due to the number of endemic bird, crab and plant species. Approximately 63% of the Island’s 135 square kilometres is gazetted National Park.  The largest fish on the planet, the whale shark, as well as 17 land crab species and at least two varieties of birds are at risk, Conservation Council of Western Australia environmental science and policy coordinator Nic Dunlop said.

The land crab usually returns to shore  in January after spawning, but this year they will return to a coastline contaminated by oils and phosphate.  There is also concern for the whale sharks who come to Christmas Island at this time of year to feed on the land crab larvae and are at risk of ingesting contaminates in the process.

The Australian Maritime Safety Association has estimated about 102 tonnes of intermediate fuel oil, 11,000 litres of lubricant oil, 32 tonnes of diesel oil and approximately 260 tonnes of phosphate was onboard the vessel.  Since the vessel has broken up and sank, all of these contaminants have been released into the ocean.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is expected to land on Christmas Island today to begin their investigation into the incident.  The chief question that needs answering is why officials allowed the vessel to remain moored off the island overnight when approaching violent swells should have been apparent to authorities.  These swells smashed the ship against the rock sea wall and continue to hamper clean-up efforts.  The only saving grace is that the violent seas are also helping to disperse the chemicals.

AFP Photo

Scientists are seeking answers as to why thousands of dead herring have appeared on the beaches of Kvaenes in the northerly district of of Nordesia, Norway.  This couldn’t have come at a better time for the doomsdayers who believe that the Mayans foretold the coming of the apocalypse in 2012.  This is, of course, a sign to them.

But it is actually reminiscent of late 2010 and all of 2011  when there were several mass animal death events around the globe, such as:

• 83,000 dead and dying drum fish washed up on the Arkansas River in the U.S.
• 5,000 red winged black birds fell dead from the sky in Arkansas in the U.S.
• 100 tons of dead fish washed ashore on the Brazilian coast.
• 500 starlings and red-winged black birds fell dead in Louisiana, U.S.
• 2 million dead fish were found floating in Chesapeake Bay, U.S.
• hundreds of dead turtle doves were found in Faenza, Italy.
• thousands of dead gizard shad (species of fish) turned up dead in Lake Michigan, U.S.
• 40,000 dead crabs washed ashore in the U.K.
• 7 million small fish were found dead in the harbour near Redondo Beach, California.
• 100 birds found dead in streets of Falkoping, Sweden.
• thousands of dead starfish and other sea creatures washed ashore North Wales.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has completed a draft environmental impact statement regarding multiple oil and gas lease sales tentatively scheduled between 2012 and 2017 in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico planning areas, offshore the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program: 2012-2017 schedules five annual area-wide lease sales in the Western Gulf and five in the Central Gulf.

“The draft environmental impact statement evaluates baseline conditions and potential environmental effects of oil and natural gas leasing, exploration, development and production in the Western and Central Gulf,” said BOEM Director Tommy P. Beaudreau. “It is an important step toward implementing the Gulf of Mexico lease sales proposed in the next five-year program, and I strongly encourage the public to provide input on this document.”

The environmental impact statement is available for review online at http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/public-inspection/index.html. BOEM will begin accepting comments on the environmental impact statement following the publication date of the Notice of Availability in the Federal Register.

BOEM will hold public hearings to provide an opportunity to comment on the environmental impact statement. These meetings will provide BOEM an opportunity to solicit comments from interested citizens and organizations. Comments will be used to prepare the final environmental impact statement for proposed Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas lease sales offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Public hearings on the environmental impact statements will be held at the following locations:

Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, at 1 p.m. Houston Airport Marriott at George Bush Intercontinental, 18700 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Houston, Texas.

Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012, at 1 p.m. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 1201 Elmwood Park Blvd, New Orleans, La.

Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, at 1 p.m. Five Rivers, Alabama’s Delta Resource Center, 30945 Five Rivers Blvd, Spanish Fort, Ala.

Submit comments online at multisaleEIS@boem.gov. Submit written comments by mail for 45 days following the publication date of the Notice of Availability in the Federal Register to:

 Comments on the Draft Multisale EIS

Mr. Gary D. Goeke

Regional Assessment Section

Office of Environmental (MS 5410)

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

Gulf of Mexico OCS Region

1201 Elmwood Park Blvd.

New Orleans, Louisiana 70123-2394

For more information on the proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program: 2012-2017, go to http://www.boem.gov/uploadedFiles/5-Year_Program_Factsheet.pdf.

The Japanese whaling fleet set sail last week for the southern ocean around Antarctica to kill and process 1,000 whales for the purported purpose of “research”, something that they are allowed to do under the International Whaling Commission’s ban on whaling enacted in 1986 and to which Japan is a signatory.  For several years the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS)  has actively worked to stop the disguised hunt and succeeded in forcing the Japanese to return home early during last year’s whaling season with one-fifth of their intended catch.

Three ships, led by the 720-tonne Yushin Maru and accompanied by a fisheries agency guard vessel, left the Shimonoseki port in south-western Japan.  But if the slaughter of whales under the guise of “scientific research” wasn’t despicable enough, The Guardian has reported that the Japanase government is using 2.28 billion yen (US$30 million) from the earthquake recovery fund to pay for this year’s hunt.  These are funds that were intended for use to rebuild fishing communities devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

“It is absolutely disgraceful for the Japanese government to pump yet more taxpayer money on an unneeded, unwanted and economically unviable whaling programme, when funds are desperately needed for recovery efforts,” said Junichi Sato, the executive director of Greenpeace Japan,  ”The whaling programme is a black mark on Japan’s international reputation, and a black hole for taxpayer money. Pouring billions of yen into Antarctic whaling during this time of crisis is downright shameful. Japan cannot afford to waste money on whaling in the Antarctic when its people are suffering at home.”

The Japanses fisheries agency said the use of the fund was justified because one the towns destroyed by the tsunami was a whaling port.  The truth is that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s efforts to disrupt their whaling activities is forcing the Japanese government to spend more each year to pursue their cetacean delicacy.

The Japanese government has decided to take the fight against the Sea Shepherd group to the American courts.  ”The Institute of Cetacean Research and Kyodo Senpaku are seeking a court order in the US District Court in Seattle, Washington that prevents SSCS and its founder Paul Watson from engaging in activities at sea that could cause injuries to the crews and damage to the vessels.”  Kyodo Senpaku owns the whaling ships, while the cetacean institute operates the whaling programme under the authority of the Japanese government.  The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is based in Washington state which is why the lawsuit was filed in the Seattle court.

The Japanese government is spending a great deal of capital, both human and monetary, to pursue a barbaric tradition of slaughtering endangered species of whales.  This along with the annual dolphin hunt at Taiji paint a picture of a country that does not respect the marine environment that surrounds it.

There has been much sensational reporting in the media regarding the vast amount of debris that was set adrift in the Pacific Ocean as a result of the devastating tsunami that struck the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan on March 11, 2011.  If we are to believe the media reports there is anywhere from 5 to 20 million tons of debris in the form of a large flotilla reminiscent of a floating island, heading for Hawaii and the west coast of the United States.  As is often the case, the truth is a little less sensational but still troubling for the ocean environment.

Tsunami Debris Facts:

• Although the media has reported that there is 5 to 20 tons of debris from the tsunami, US government agencies cannot verify where these numbers came from.  They suspect that they are the result of the Japanese government’s estimate of 25 tons of debris from the disaster, which is not an accurate estimate of the marine debris in the Pacific ocean.
• The debris is not in a “debris field” but is spread out across a large area of the North Pacific.  While the debris was clumped together when it was first washed into the ocean, it has since been dispersed.
• Since the debris is dispersed, it is impossible to locate with satellite imagery at this time- it was last seen on satellite on April 14, 2011.
• It is considered unlikely that the debris would be radioactive as it would have been washed into the ocean before any leak of radiation from the nuclear power plants.
• NOAA, the EPA and the University of Hawaii are the lead members of a working group to explore the best actions for addressing the debris and tracking its path.
• The Russian sailing ship, the STS Pallada, encountered sporadic debris in  September near the Midway Islands.
• The debris is expected to reach the Hawaiin Islands as early as this winter, approach the West Coast of the United States in 2013 and circle back to Hawaii in 2014-2016 as a result of ocean currents.
• Significant sightings of marine debris can be reported to: MDsightings@gmail.com

M3 Wave Energy Systems based in Corvallis, Oregon, conducted testing on its DMP device technology at Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University last week.   As a result of this developmental milestone, the company has begun a new push for funding in order to be able to proceed to an in-ocean pilot.

The Delos-Reyes Morrow Pressure Device, or DMP, is an innovative new approach to the concept of extracting energy from the ocean that was originally developed in 1991 by the company’s principals when they were students at Oregon State University.   The DMP operates beneath the surface of the ocean, avoiding many of the issues inherent with surface-based systems like ocean power buoys, ocean wind farms, and floating PV.

Submerged operation reduces the impact on commercial navigation, recreation, fisheries, marine animals, aesthetics, and sea birds. Residing under the surface also protects the DMP from some of the harsh apsects of the ocean environment- wind loading, inclement weather, rogue waves, UV damage, etc. Additional benefits include tow-to-site self-deploying and recovery capability, enhanced power source security, and stealthy power generation potential for military applications.

The DMP is a hybrid of conventional ocean wave energy converter technologies, merging proven aspects of pressure transient converters with OAC and OWC systems in a simple, easy-to-manufacture, and highly robust device.  The company also claims that  the device will have a relatively small footprint  with the ability to interlock units allowing 20 to 50 devices to be deployed in the same space as one buoy device, although it is unclear if this translates into a large difference in energy production.

Although the company has deep roots in Oregon and have received the lion’s  share of their current funding from the state, they are willing to look at other locations in order to proceed to the next step in the development process.

State and federal members of the Maine Task Force of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will meet on December 8th (Thursday) to review an unsolicited lease application that they received from the Norwegian oil company, Statoil, for a wind energy project in the waters south of Boothbay, Maine.

The project is considered the first-of-its-kind prototype of a floating-platform turbine wind farm. In 2009, Statoil erected the first floating wind turbine off the coast of Norway.   Although the company is considering several sites around the world for the project including Scotland,  the Maine site is one of the ones which has progressed the furthest according to the Statoil spokesperson.

The deep waters off the coast of Maine are considered prime real estate for the location of offshore wind energy projects due to the proximity of large urban centres such as Boston, steady and strong winds and the state’s favorable regulatory attitude toward renewable energy projects.  The University of Maine’s Offshore Wind Energy Laboratory is an important resource for the industry as well.

Deep water wind projects will need to utilize floating platforms tethered by cables in order to be cost effective.  Siting in deep water provides for consistent strong wind and less conflict with existing uses.  Well designed pilot projects will provide the necessary data to determine these projects will impact marine wildlife.

Maine Fishermen have expressed concerns over the project’s impact on fishing grounds.  Statoil has declared that it will work with all stakeholders in order to address issue that may arise.  The copany has a good tract record of this approach in development of oil and gas wells.

The meeting this week to review the lease application will take place on Thursday, December 8th, at the Marriott Hotel in South Portland, Maine at 9:30 am and is open to public with limited opportunity for public comment.

A family spending the day by the sea were treated to an octopus’ excursion on shore.  They found the creature in the shallows and started filming, not knowing that he would venture up on land to their video-making delight.  The octopus proceeded to regurgitate a crab and then returned to the ocean.

Apparently this is not an unusual occurrence for octopus as they have been known to leave their tanks in aquariums often being found in other tanks or rooms by researches and staff.  What is unusual is that this octopus chose to show himself while people were present.  They are very shy creatures, even with other octopus.

Here is the video, enjoy!

Photo: Silvia Izquierdo/AP

Chevron Corp has taken full responsibility for a major oil spill in Brazil’s Campos Basin as a result of drilling a well in about 4,000 feet of water 230 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro.  Oil has been leaking since November 8th.

Chevron has indicated that they have plugged the well, but oil continues to seep from the sea floor.  The company reportedly doesn’t understand how it underestimated the pressure the oil was under in the reservoir.  When the drilling rig tapped the high-pressure reservoir, oil surged up the well. Though  a blow-out was prevented, oil still found a route to the seabed and, ultimately, to the surface.

The oil company seemed to want to avoid the negative publicity that BP faced with the Deepwater Horizon spill by claiming complete responsibility for the spill this weekend, holding the drilling rig owner/operator Transocean(owner/operator of Deepwater Horizon rig), blameless in the incident.

While Chevron wanted to paint a picture to the media of a small oil spill that they have mostly under control, the Brazilian government is telling a very different tale.  The Rio de Janeiro state environment minister announced Friday that the spill is bigger than was estimated earlier and many Brazilian officials say it is not contained.

The Brazilian authorities admit that the  exact cause of the leak is not yet known, but a spokesman for Brazil’s Federal Police, which has opened an investigation into the spill, said that Chevron “drilled about 500 metres farther than they were licensed to do.”  Perhaps this is the reason Chevron’s pressure calculations were so wrong.

The amount of oil spilled to date is a matter of contention between Chevron and the Brazilian government and environmental groups.  Chevron contends that the spill amounted to between 400 and 650 barrels of oil and that “current  estimates place the volume of the oil sheen on the ocean surface to be less than 65 barrels.”

Brazilian minister Carlos Minc said the government would soon release satellite images showing that the eight-kilometer oil slick is about one meter deep, rather than just on the surface,  indicating that the environmental damage “is certainly bigger” than thought until now.  The Brazilian oil regulator, the National Petroleum Agency(ANP), has estimated that the the spill is at least 1,000 barrels and not yet contained.

The ANP, the Brazilian environmental regulator Ibama, and Rio de Janeiro state officials are expected to meet today to begin evaluating the how much Chevron will face in fines as a result of the spill, including compensation to fishermen.  The Federal police are also conducting an investigation in which charges may be laid against company officials for  damaging the environment.

The Scottish wave energy company, Aquamarine Power, has closed its office in Newport, Oregon at least for the time being.  Aquamarine had established a one-person office in Oregon last year with the intent of deploying its wave energy buoy in the state’s coastal waters, but stated that a lack of certainty regarding the state’s marine energy development plan led to their decision to consolidate their operations in California.

“We are at present unable to proceed until we are given some certainty over seabed leases pending completion of the Territorial Sea Plan process,” said Martin McAdam, Aquamarine’s CEO, in a statement.

The state of Oregon had planned to complete their Territorial Sea Plan by the end of 2010, but currently estimate that it will take until the middle of next year to complete the process.  Until then, they are only able to offer short-term testing sites not the seabed leases needed by Aquamarine Power.

Ocean Power Technologies got to Oregon early in the process and had their first two wave energy project phases grandfathered into the Plan.

While still interested in Oregon, Aquamarine Power intends to search both Washington and California for potential offshore energy sites.

The South Korean government has joined the frenzy regarding offshore wind development in the Asia-Pacific region.  On the heels of China’s big investment announcement in offshore wind energy capacity, the South Koreans who currently import 97% of their energy needs, will invest $9 billion U.S. dollars to develop a 2.5 gigawatt offshore wind farm by 2019, the largest in the country.

This is not just about providing much needed domestic energy production.  The South Korean government is leading the project and is planning to procure turbines from eight local suppliers.  The intent is to also build capacity in the wind turbine business, taking on Europe, the U.S. and China. The South Koreans will spend about $1 billion U.S. this year on feed in tariffs to support  solar, wind and other renewable energy projects.

According to Bloomberg News, the South Korean offshore wind farm will be developed in three stages off the southwest coast in Jeollabukdo and Jeollanamdo provinces:

1. Construction of a 100 megawatt demonstration farm in 2014 that will include 3.5 to 7 megawatt turbines made by Doosan Heavy Industries,  Hyundai Heavy Industries,  and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.
2. Construction of a 400 megawatt demonstration farm by 2016.
3. The 2 gigawatt wind farm will be built by 2019.

The Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, The People’s Daily, is reporting that China plans to increase installed capacity of its offshore wind power sector to 30 gigawatts by 2020 with investments of almost $16 billion in US dollars.

China is new to the offshore wind energy market with only 142,500 kilowatts of installed capacity at the end of 2010, the result of only one project the Shanghai Donghai Bridge.

The Chinese newspaper was very proud of the fact that the Chinese company, Sinovel Wind Group, had independently researched and developed a 6 MW turbine becoming only the second country in the world to have the ability to manufacture such a large turbine.   They intend to leverage this ability in developing their future large-scale offshore wind projects.

Sinovel’s meteoric rise in the wind energy industry has not been without controversy.  In September, an engineer and former American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC) employee pleaded guilty to charges of stealing AMSC intellectual property and selling it to Sinovel.

It is interesting to note that the publication stressed that China had developed its 6 MW turbine independently.  This large capacity turbine was unveiled earlier this year around the same time as European manufacturers, Siemens and Alstom, each revealed their new 6 Megawatt offshore wind turbine prototypes.  This is quite an accomplishment for Sinovel given that it is a relatively new player in the wind industry.

Given the AMSC corporate espionage case, it appears that they want to squash any allegations of impropriety in the development of large scale turbines.

European nations and companies have been retiscent to openly accuse China of stealing intellectual property rights but last week the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive presented a report to the United States Congress titled ” Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace”  named China as the world’s leading source of espionage.

Sinovel claims to be developing a 10MW turbine which coincidentally has been in development at American Superconductor Corp for several years now.

What could be worse than a storm that packs the punch of a category 3 hurricane coming ashore, the same storm when temperatures are low enough to make it a blizzard!    The western coast of Alaska has been battered with an epic storm from the Bering Sea the likes of which has not been seen in at least 40 years.

According to the National Weather Service, Alaska has been hit with waves cresting up to 50 feet with onshore winds of 75 to 100 mph creating blizzard conditions.  But it is the shear size of this storm at over 1,000 miles in diameter that make it epic.

This storm is just the latest extreme weather event to hit the United States in what has been the most catastrophic weather year on record. While this storm will not result in record damages in dollar terms due to the low population density of Alaska, the United States has experienced a record setting 14 billion dollar weather disasters in 2011.  This may be just a taste of the weather volatility we can expect due to climate change.

Here is the list of the billion dollar weather events this year:

• The October 29th Snowstorm that struck the Northeast dumping up to 32 inches of snow in some places and causing $3 billion in damages in Connecticut alone, one of many states that was hit with over 27 deaths attibuted to the storm.
• Tropical Storm Lee in September caused over $1 billion in damages and 13 deaths.
• Hurrican Irene which struck the east coast in August causing $7.2 billion in damages and 46 deaths.
• Missouri and Souris river flooding in the spring and summer which caused over $2 billion in damages and 5 deaths.
• Texas Drought and Wildfires this summer caused $5.2 billion in damages and 2 deaths.
• Mississippi River Flooding in the spring/summer causing $5 billion in damages and 1 death.
• Midwest/Southeast Plains Severe Storms, June 16-22, causing $1.25 billion in damages and luckily no one lost their life.
• Midwest/Southeast Tornado Outbreak, May 21-27, with $8 billion in damages and 177 deaths.
• Midwest/Southeast/Plains Tornado severe storms, April 19-20, resulting in $1 billion dollars in damages and no deaths.
• The 2011 Super Outbreak, from April 25-30, with $9 billion in damages and 321 deaths.
• Midwest/Southeast Tornado Outbreak,  April 14-16,  resulting in $2.5 billion in damages and 38 deaths.
• Southeast/Midwest Sever Storms, April 8-11, with $2.25 billion in damages.
• Midwest/Southeast Severe Storms, April 3-5, resulting in $2.5 billion in damages and 9 deaths.
• The Groundhog Day Blizzard, January 29th to February 3rd, with $3.9 billion in damages and 36 fatalities.

The Seawater Greenhouse provides a low-cost solution by enabling year-round crop production in some of the world’s hottest and driest regions. It does this using seawater and sunlight. The technology imitates natural processes, helping to restore the environment while significantly reducing the operating costs of greenhouse horticulture.

Seawater is evaporated at the front of the greenhouse to create cool humid conditions inside. A proportion of the evaporated seawater is then condensed as fresh water that can be used to irrigate the crops. Excess freshwater created in the Seawater Greenhouse can be used to irrigate additional crops grown outside the greenhouse.

The air going into the greenhouse is first cooled and humidified by seawater, which trickles over the first evaporator. This provides good climate conditions for the crops. As the air leaves the growing area, it passes through the second evaporator over which seawater is flowing. This seawater has been heated by the sun in a network of pipes above the growing area, making the air much hotter and more humid. It then meets a series of vertical pipes through which cool seawater passes. When the hot humid air meets the cool surfaces, fresh water will condense as droplets that run down to the base where they can be collected.

The cool and humid conditions in the greenhouse enable crops to grow with very little water. When crops are not stressed by excessive transpiration, both the yield and the quality are higher.

The simplicity of the process imitates the hydrological cycle where seawater heated by the sun evaporates, cools down to form clouds, and returns to the earth as rain, fog or dew.

The economic benefits of this system as claimed by the designers are substantial. See Below

Operating costs 10 to 25%
Capital costs 10 to 15%
Returns 15 to 35%

To visit the Seawater greenhouse click here