Huge Floating Solar-Powered Farms Could End World Hunger

As our cities continue to grow, eating up more land, natural resources begin to dwindle, and added to the climate change affecting our crop yields, there is bound to be a major food shortage problem within the next two decades.

How do you feed an estimated nine billion hungry human beings when the time comes?

With solar-powered floating farms, of course.

Forward Thinking Architecture, a design firm from Barcelona, Spain, has put forward their concept for Smart Floating Farms (SFFs). Designed as vast floating pontoons powered by solar electricity, these floating farms can be maintained off coasts, on open sea, or on just about any body of water.

Clusters of sustainable food farms.

Based on Forward Thinking Architecture’s concept, a single SFF can produce as much as 8,152 tons of vegetables, and over 1,700 tons of fish each year.

World hunger can end, thanks to a floating farm on a barge…

The top level of a single pontoon features photovoltaic panels to harvest renewable solar energy from the sun, as well as skylight openings to enable natural sunlight to enter the lower levels and photosynthesize plants.

Alongside the solar panels and skylight openings, rainwater collectors and a water recycling system provide for the crops’ irrigation needs, supplemented by other renewable energy sources, like wind turbines and wave energy converter systems.

On the second level, greenhouses containing plants in a hydroponic system allows them to grow without soil. Hydroponics is a type of hydroculture which allows plants to grow while subsisting only on mineral nutrient solutions and water.

Soil-less crops can eliminate our dependence on land-based farming, freeing up more space…

The sustainable environment of an SFF allows people living in arid regions with little to no rainfall to actually grow plant food, not only for themselves, but also for profit.

Finally, on ground level, an offshore aquaculture method which uses cages to fish eliminates having to go out into the deep sea, or brave wind and waves for a good catch. This level also contains a hatchery to incubate and hatch fish eggs, a nursery for fingerlings, and a storage area to hold the fish until they are ready to transport to the market.

Hatch fish, grow fish, harvest fish…simple.

Having an offshore SFF could actually cut reliance on imported food, and reduce the distance perishables have to travel before they can be bought and consumed.

If we all band together, we can even fund an SFF campaign via Kickstarter…

Smart Floating Farms will change how people see landlocked farming, and instead view these sustainable floating food farms as solutions to improving the quality of human life, as well as to further protect the environment.