Seawater Greenhouse

What we do:

Our greenhouse technology uses seawater to grow crops in the hottest and driest places on earth.

Combining two unlimited resources (sunlight and seawater) can provide ideal growing conditions for crops in extremely hot environments. The world isn't short of water, it's just that it is in the wrong place.... and a bit too salty.

The Seawater Greenhouse  innovation utilises the cooling and humidifying power of water vapour produced from evaporating salt water.

The combined effect of reducing temperature and increasing humidity, together with providing a protected environment for crops, results in up to 90% reduction in evapotranspiration. This greatly reduces irrigation requirements, which can be provided by desalination, and improved growing conditions.

For People and Planet :

According to the World Health Organization, about 20 percent of the world’s people live in regions that don’t have enough water for their needs.

With the global population increasing by 80 million each year, 30% of the planet will soon face water shortages.

This water crisis is directly linked to food production because agriculture accounts for 70 percent of all fresh water used. And obtaining irrigation water in arid regions has serious environmental impacts.

Charlie Paton and his team have been exploring this challenge to find novel ways to make food production viable within arid regions. The resulting in the Seawater Greenhouse concept was first tested in 1992 on the Canary Island of Tenerife.

Why we do it:

There is a broad agreement that something needs to be done to reduce atmospheric CO2 at scale – yet there are endless debates about what that something is.

However there is also a growing consensus that mother nature does it best – through photosynthesis.

Carbon dioxide and water, converted by sunlight into carbohydrates, is stored in plant biomass and through their roots, sequestered in soils.