A Technological Miracle in the Desert: Seawater Cucumbers

After an intense ten month construction period, the first cucumbers grown in a desert green house using seawater and solar power were served to participants at UN Climate Negotiations in Doha, when invited VIPs toured the Sahara Forest Project pilot facility in Qatar. "We are proud to serve our first cucumbers here today," said Joakim Hauge, CEO of The Sahara Forest Project, whose goal is to produce food, water and energy in desert areas around the world. Besides cucumbers, guests also saw the 10,000 square meter facility where they learned about its saltwater-cooled greenhouses, Qatar's first operational concentrated solar plant and the region's largest algae research facility. The video shows how the new facility combines existing technologies into a powerful synergy. The two core ingredients are solar thermal energy and seawater. Solar thermal provides electricity and also heat, which is used to drive an evaporative desalination system for use in irrigation, and to warm the greenhouse. 

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Images: The Sahara Forest Project