The Sahara desert is a nice place to visit for about 10 minutes, then you realize there is not a whole lot to see, but sand and a few cacti here and there. Three Engineers have come together to utilize all of that space to produce food and energy.
The Sahara Forest Project is one that is designed to grow food in the desert and at the same time generate its own food and energy.
Via Inhabitat.com
"A Seawater Greenhouse converts sea water into fresh water using nothing more than the sun’s rays. It does this by running air through a structure whose walls are infused with cold sea water. As air enters it is immediately cooled, humidified, and then condensed into fresh water by sunlight.
Concentrated solar power is a technology that utilizes thousands of mirrors to focus sunlight upon a water boiler, heating it to over 1,000 degrees fahrenheit. This generates steam, which in turn drives a turbine to produce energy."
With the sources mentioned above, food can be grown and farmed on the desert floor.
The project is said to be around 160 million dollars and and will be 200,000 square Meters in size.
If plausible this project seems like a logical one to use a whole lot of unused space.