AhsanAmin
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I have written this article for Sahara Jungle Plantations to curb global warming on linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sahara-jungle-plantations-idea-curb-global-warming-ahsan-amin
Also on this thread: https://forum.wilmott.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=100778
Please specialize the cost-benefit analysis for coastal areas of Balochistan.
Sahara Jungle Plantations to Curb Global Warming.
Are there any experts working on the idea of planting a huge jungle in Sahara desert fed by seawater from the oceans. There would be large wind turbines along the Maghreb coast that will pump water from the sea into the desert. New very cheap and efficient desalination technologies based on nanotechnology would be used and wind turbines on the coast would power these desalination plants. First plantations would be very close to the sea and slowly the plantations would move towards the heart of the desert. The project would be scalable with all provisions of planned expansions in earlier phases. Very carefully selected tree and plants species would be planted after considering the adaptability in climate, potential benefits to atmosphere, possible commercial use and several other related issues. Once the climate of the desert cools, there would also be a plan for future cities in the desert and network of roads. This could be a 15-30 years project costing a few hundred billion dollars. Sahara Jungle plantations could be enough to control global warming and possibly decrease temperatures preventing the cost of tens of trillions of dollars associated with global warming on our planet. It could also be run as a sustainable and highly profitable commercial enterprise.
Just to give a stronger motivation, I tried to do some very simple calculations on the back of envelope that can easily be tweaked in all sort of ways by people who have actual interest in calculating realistic costs of irrigation associated with Sahara desert. First we will have to build channels that carry water in a stair-step fashion. After every few kilometers, the height of channels will increase and there will be pumping machinery to lift water from lower channel to higher channel. There will be high tension wires along the channels that will transport electricity from the wind turbines along the ocean shore and they will provide energy to pumps at the end of channels to lift water. You could also use solar energy at places. Here are some simple energy calculations.
Suppose we plant Eucalyptus trees that require 40 litres per tree per day on the lower side. Of course we would like all sort of other trees in the jungle but Eucalyptus is probably a good start.
We plant 500 trees per acre.
Area of the desert is 9.2 million km-sq.
which is 2272 million acres.
2272 million acres X 500 trees per acre X 40 liters per tree= Roughly 12.75 million acre-foot of water.
I have used 1 acre-foot= 1.2 million liters.
If we take average height of Sahara where water has to be lifted to be 400 meters above sea level, we can proceed as
Energy required to lift one acre-foot of water by one foot= Roughly 1 KWh.
Energy required to lift 12.75 million acre-foot of water by one foot= 12750 MWh.
Energy required to lift 12.75 million acre-foot of water by 400 meters= 12750 X (400 meters X 3.28 foot/meters )= 16.7 million MWh.
Suppose we can produce very cheap electricity on this very large scale by installing 10 MW turbines.
Suppose cost of electricity is 10 dollars per MWh.
Daily cost of energy would be 16.7 million MWh X 10 dollars = 167 million dollars.
Rough energy cost for lifting water for 365 days would be 61 billion dollars.
Calculation of Desalination costs.
one thousand liters would require 2KWh of power with expected technologies.
One acre-foot would require 2.4 MWh of energy
12.75 million acre-foot of water would require desalination cost of 12.75 million X 2.4 = 30.6 million MWh.
At ten dollars per MWh, the associated energy costs would be about 300 million dollars.
Rough water desalination cost per year would be 300 million X 365 days= 109.5 billion dollars.
If the Eucalyptus trees yield 30 tons over 7 years per acre without any fertilizer and special treatments.
Let us suppose one ton of Eucalyptus yields 40 dollars.
The reward price for 30 tons would be 40 X3 = 1200 dollars.
For 2272 million acres of Sahara, the reward price would be = 1200 * 2272 million= 2726.4 billion dollars.
while for seven years total water lifting and desalination costs at previously calculated rates would be = (109.5 +61) billion dollars X 7 years= 1193 billion dollars
Of course fixed costs are required to be calculated.
Tweak in all sort of interesting ways and produce all sorts of scenarios.
Add an evaporation factor for the water that would evaporate from channels and other places.
Tweak for the fraction of Sahara that will actually be converted into a jungle each year.
Water lifting height will be smaller in the starting years.
Costs of building the channels.
Add costs associated with all other factors.
Also on this thread: https://forum.wilmott.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=100778
Please specialize the cost-benefit analysis for coastal areas of Balochistan.
Sahara Jungle Plantations to Curb Global Warming.
Are there any experts working on the idea of planting a huge jungle in Sahara desert fed by seawater from the oceans. There would be large wind turbines along the Maghreb coast that will pump water from the sea into the desert. New very cheap and efficient desalination technologies based on nanotechnology would be used and wind turbines on the coast would power these desalination plants. First plantations would be very close to the sea and slowly the plantations would move towards the heart of the desert. The project would be scalable with all provisions of planned expansions in earlier phases. Very carefully selected tree and plants species would be planted after considering the adaptability in climate, potential benefits to atmosphere, possible commercial use and several other related issues. Once the climate of the desert cools, there would also be a plan for future cities in the desert and network of roads. This could be a 15-30 years project costing a few hundred billion dollars. Sahara Jungle plantations could be enough to control global warming and possibly decrease temperatures preventing the cost of tens of trillions of dollars associated with global warming on our planet. It could also be run as a sustainable and highly profitable commercial enterprise.
Just to give a stronger motivation, I tried to do some very simple calculations on the back of envelope that can easily be tweaked in all sort of ways by people who have actual interest in calculating realistic costs of irrigation associated with Sahara desert. First we will have to build channels that carry water in a stair-step fashion. After every few kilometers, the height of channels will increase and there will be pumping machinery to lift water from lower channel to higher channel. There will be high tension wires along the channels that will transport electricity from the wind turbines along the ocean shore and they will provide energy to pumps at the end of channels to lift water. You could also use solar energy at places. Here are some simple energy calculations.
Suppose we plant Eucalyptus trees that require 40 litres per tree per day on the lower side. Of course we would like all sort of other trees in the jungle but Eucalyptus is probably a good start.
We plant 500 trees per acre.
Area of the desert is 9.2 million km-sq.
which is 2272 million acres.
2272 million acres X 500 trees per acre X 40 liters per tree= Roughly 12.75 million acre-foot of water.
I have used 1 acre-foot= 1.2 million liters.
If we take average height of Sahara where water has to be lifted to be 400 meters above sea level, we can proceed as
Energy required to lift one acre-foot of water by one foot= Roughly 1 KWh.
Energy required to lift 12.75 million acre-foot of water by one foot= 12750 MWh.
Energy required to lift 12.75 million acre-foot of water by 400 meters= 12750 X (400 meters X 3.28 foot/meters )= 16.7 million MWh.
Suppose we can produce very cheap electricity on this very large scale by installing 10 MW turbines.
Suppose cost of electricity is 10 dollars per MWh.
Daily cost of energy would be 16.7 million MWh X 10 dollars = 167 million dollars.
Rough energy cost for lifting water for 365 days would be 61 billion dollars.
Calculation of Desalination costs.
one thousand liters would require 2KWh of power with expected technologies.
One acre-foot would require 2.4 MWh of energy
12.75 million acre-foot of water would require desalination cost of 12.75 million X 2.4 = 30.6 million MWh.
At ten dollars per MWh, the associated energy costs would be about 300 million dollars.
Rough water desalination cost per year would be 300 million X 365 days= 109.5 billion dollars.
If the Eucalyptus trees yield 30 tons over 7 years per acre without any fertilizer and special treatments.
Let us suppose one ton of Eucalyptus yields 40 dollars.
The reward price for 30 tons would be 40 X3 = 1200 dollars.
For 2272 million acres of Sahara, the reward price would be = 1200 * 2272 million= 2726.4 billion dollars.
while for seven years total water lifting and desalination costs at previously calculated rates would be = (109.5 +61) billion dollars X 7 years= 1193 billion dollars
Of course fixed costs are required to be calculated.
Tweak in all sort of interesting ways and produce all sorts of scenarios.
Add an evaporation factor for the water that would evaporate from channels and other places.
Tweak for the fraction of Sahara that will actually be converted into a jungle each year.
Water lifting height will be smaller in the starting years.
Costs of building the channels.
Add costs associated with all other factors.
