Perhaps I’m missing something here. Doesn’t distilling the water (given the local solar power that should be near 0 cost) kill two birds with one stone? Producing good water for farming, and other human uses, and leaving all the minerals behind for use?
I would think one might even be able to do some type of multi-stage type desalination with the available power that includes centrifuges that would at least produce some level of mineral separation that would be a value added step.
Last, seems that vertical farming tech has come a good ways and would also be a great fit into the effort. Moreover, that would also produce additional expertise/experience that may well prove helpful for exporting farming to both space and other planets/the moon.
The existing vertical farming companies depend in their marketing on producing locally and being pesticide free. It’s also easier for them to hire the necessary expertise near cities than in the middle of nowhere.
The average Texas commercial electricity rate is 9.38 ¢/kWh (22% lower than the national average).
I don’t think that’s enough of a cost incentive to counteract the increased difficulty in accessing skilled labor.
I also don’t see a good idea to expect an idea like “just build solar panels” to be a great cost improvement over the existing infrastructure. Building things in remote places without roads is more expensive and factors like the dust likely do matter.
Perhaps I’m missing something here. Doesn’t distilling the water (given the local solar power that should be near 0 cost) kill two birds with one stone? Producing good water for farming, and other human uses, and leaving all the minerals behind for use?
I would think one might even be able to do some type of multi-stage type desalination with the available power that includes centrifuges that would at least produce some level of mineral separation that would be a value added step.
Last, seems that vertical farming tech has come a good ways and would also be a great fit into the effort. Moreover, that would also produce additional expertise/experience that may well prove helpful for exporting farming to both space and other planets/the moon.
Desalination plants tend to leave behind brine rather than pure minerals.
The existing vertical farming companies depend in their marketing on producing locally and being pesticide free. It’s also easier for them to hire the necessary expertise near cities than in the middle of nowhere.
According to https://www.energybot.com/electricity-rates/texas/ :
I don’t think that’s enough of a cost incentive to counteract the increased difficulty in accessing skilled labor.
I also don’t see a good idea to expect an idea like “just build solar panels” to be a great cost improvement over the existing infrastructure. Building things in remote places without roads is more expensive and factors like the dust likely do matter.