Sea power harnessed to keep hub cool

The latest residential and tourist hub to rise in the baked Middle East is taking advantage of its coastal location by building a sea water-powered air-conditioning system. A first for the country, the $145-million project at Egypt's New Alamein City, near Alexandria, will see cold water extracted from deep within the Mediterranean Sea. It will then be pumped into a cooling station before being filtered through pipes in buildings — lowering inside air temperatures while absorbing heat. The project, initially consisting of a single cooling plant, will have the capacity to cool entire neighbourhoods without the greenhouse gas emissions linked with traditional energy-sucking air-conditioning appliances. Alaa Olama, a United Nations consultant involved in the scheme, said keeping Egypt's cities and towns cool in the summer — where temperatures regularly top 40 C — is responsible for a huge swath of the country's energy bill. Speaking to Monocle magazine, he said: “During the peak summer months, some 50 per cent of the electric power (in Cairo) goes to air-conditioning. So this is an important solution for new cities.” The new “fourth-generation” city will eventually house up to three million residents and is expected to be a major tourist destination when complete. Stretching 60 kilometres into the desert, it will cover more than 20,000 hectares and is situated close to an archeological site near the Alamein War Cemetery.