From Noel Hodson
In 1996 I recommended “water chimneys” to the governors of the island of Majorca, which gets lots of rain, loses most of it in flood run-off, and then imports ship-loads of fresh water throughout the summer (12 July, p 15).
The idea is to tether large, transparent domed rafts on the sea. These domes are fitted with fan-assisted transparent chimneys, laid out in full sunlight along prominent land ridges, that run up to condensing rooms higher up the island.
The rafts allow a shallow layer of seawater to cover the inside base, where the sun causes rapid evaporation. The water vapour is then carried up the chimneys and kept from condensing by the heat of the sun until it reaches the cool rooms at the top of the island, from where the fresh water can be fed downhill. It may even be an environmentally friendly, low-energy system.
Oxford, UK
