Solar-Powered Ring Garden
California may have found an ally in its struggle to preserve its water supply: the Ring Garden.
Designed by Alexandru Predonu, the Ring Garden is a rotating desalination plant and aeroponics farm that harvests seawater, solar energy, and carbon dioxide to produce clean drinking water, food crops, and biomass for animal feed. The garden’s rotation and desalination processes are powered by photovoltaic panels, and it takes in seawater through screens that keep sea life out. The water is then cleaned by a high-pressure pump and distributed to an irrigation system for the rotating plants and the city's water grid, respectively. The Ring Garden will redirect more than 300 million gallons of water a year to drought-stricken Californians, while only using nine million gallons itself. To engage people and create awareness about the benefits and necessity of sustainable innovations visitors are welcome to visit the facility by boat, and pick vegetables and plant new ones at an outdoor aeroponics garden.