Imagine a future where fresh produce is grown using seawater and sunlight. While this may still be a distant dream for farmers here in Africa, they are keeping up with international trends by exploring alternative approaches to floating sea farms.
In Australia, Sundrop Farms is a unique farming venture that produces high-quality truss tomatoes using technology, seawater and sunlight.
The futuristic facility is the first of many. Operations in Australia began with the construction of a 0.2-hectare pilot facility which opened in 2009. The pilot paved the way for the development and refinement of the technology that underpins the Sundrop approach, now a world-class 20-hectare greenhouse.
According to its CEO, Steve Marafiote, Sundrop integrates solar power, electricity generation, freshwater conservation, and production, climate control, and hydroponics.
“This enables the year-round production of premium produce at high yields with consistent quality and delivers a meaningful reduction in fossil fuel and water use through innovative use of renewable energy, or low carbon technologies.”
How it works
They use the sun’s energy to produce freshwater for irrigation, and turn it into electricity to power their greenhouse to heat and cool their crops.
“Our technology ensures optimal conditions for our plants to produce delicious tasting fruit and vegetables all year round,” said Marafiote.
“How it works is, sunlight is the beginning of everything we do, from harvesting its energy to run our solar energy systems to providing the light needed to produce our high quality produce.”
From thereon, they draw seawater from the nearby Spencer Gulf to provide water for the evaporative cooling systems and to feed out the desalination plan.
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Sundrop’s concentrated solar power (CSP) system reduces their reliance on fossil fuels by producing heat, electricity and water for their greenhouse use. Then, steam generated from the CSP is fed into a steam turbine to provide the electricity needed to power critical equipment in their greenhouses.
Using heat from the CSP and seawater drawn from the Spencer Gulf, their multi-effect distillation system produces freshwater to irrigate their crops.
Freshwater produced on site and supplemented with town water is then combined with nutrients to irrigate their crops.
“Our best-in-class greenhouses provide the ideal growing environment to produce high-quality fruit and provide barriers to pests and diseases more prevalent in open-field farming,” said Marafiote.
What about Africa?
Floating farms in Africa have taken a slightly different route. In the faraway coastlines of Tanzania and Zanzibar, seaweed cultivation has proven itself as a lifeline, this time to the magnificent coastal women of Zanzibar.
Since the shores have become over-harvested for fish by large shipping vessels, sea moss cultivation has aided these women in putting food on their family’s table, which in our book is a huge deal.
According to the African Natural Resources Centre, seaweed cultivation could play a major role in African aquaculture, as the production potential is considerable and the investment costs are affordable.
“Even if seaweed does not (yet) form part of the diet of African people, it can provide an excellent opportunity to create jobs, develop multiple domestic value chains, increase exports and help reduce the trade deficit of several countries, thus improving the living conditions of many Africans,” the report stated.
Seaweed production in South Africa is also rapidly growing. Much of the seaweed that is harvested is exported for the extraction of gums (colloidal chemicals that are used in many industries).
Meanwhile, in the Western Cape farmers have built Africa’s first commercial floating solar park. It can produce up to 60 kilowatts of energy and prevents evaporation.
Marlenique, a fruit farm and wedding venue just outside Franschhoek is home to the state-of-the-art, floating solar PV system.
The system has been installed by New South Energy on the farm’s dam, helping to generate clean energy, while also minimising evaporation from the farm’s dam and saving valuable agricultural land.
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