The study will assess the potential for application of the Seawater Greenhouse process along the arid coasline of South Africa and Namibia. Using climate data from the region, we will model how the approach will perform, cooling and humidifying the climate and generating a new source of fresh water for irrigation. Agriculture in the region is currently marginal and risky, as evaporation exceeds precipitation several-fold. Successful implementation will result from teamwork, combining academic, commercial and polititical interests locally, to establish an entity with the required skills, support, know-how and resources to develop and implement a successful project that leads to commercial scale-up. Many of these have already been identified, but so too have gaps, and these we will seek to fill. We will also investigate established frameworks for cross cutting research, development and implementation, such as the Newton and Agri-tech Catalyst programs.

We have assembled a team of designers and engineers, combining specific skills, experience, R&D facilities and a commercial presence in both the OEM pump industry and water management for agriculture. The team intentions are to develop a photovoltaic powered-pump using state of the art technology in the form of an innovative diaphragm pump. The operating principle is similar to that of a human heart. The pump will be flexible in coping with the varied and demanding conditions of use encountered in Africa. Operating conditions will include pumping from wells of varying salinities from fresh water to sea water and at different depths, delivering into various kinds of open channel, pipework and drip irrigation systems. The pump will lift against total heads up to 10 m (including friction losses) and suction heads up to 7 m. Head will be maintained while flow varies to accommodate changing sunlight conditions. Efficiency of the pump will be maximised to reduce its demand for power and hence cost of the solar PV. Taking advantage of our existing activities in the Horn of Africa, the pump will be rigorously tested and implemented there initially with commercialisation undertaken by Seawater Greenhouse Ltd. Low-cost will be achieved through supply chains known to the consortium and already set up for this type of pump, as used by BOXER pumps in OEM markets. With quantities of 100,000 per year, we project costs for the pump with electronic controller to be £20; including the PV panel and cable, total system cost be will be below £30 per unit. Use of a brushless DC motor will ensure longevity of the motor. The drive electronics, minituarised to allow integration with the motor housing , will include Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) to optimise its performance under varying light intensities. To avoid corrosion, all parts of the pump in contact with water will be of polymer. The only parts subject to wear will be the valve seats and diaphragm, with estimated life >10,000 hours. The pump body will be designed such that this is an easily replace item with replacement instructions on the pump body. Seawater Greenhouse Ltd will set up replacement stockists for these parts alongside its greenhouse business in Somaliland.

The project will develop an integrated agricultural enterprise that is both profitable and sustainable in the arid conditions of the Horn of Africa. Traditional agriculture is marginal and risky in this climate because it is generally too hot, too windy and there is a shortage of fresh water. As a consequence, evaporation exceeds rainfall by a large factor and crop yields are low. The project will overcome these obstacles with a low cost shade net structure to protect the crops from the extremes of wind and solar radiation and which is cooled and humidified with seawater, using the prevailing wind to drive the evaporative cooling process. Brackish ground water will be treated by reverse osmosis, powered by solar PV to provide irrigation and drinking water. The pilot will be built near Berbera in Somaliland and managed by a local team with support from the UK. Once demonstrated, the technology will be scaled up and replicated locally and in other hot, arid coastal regions.