14 DAY TRIAL // The possibility of building such a large project is now brought into discussion by Roelof Dirk Schuiling of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, in the hope that it would solve the energy related problems of millions of people in the Middle East, which could release some of the tensions related to oil supplies through hydroelectric power.
At the same time, engineers are evaluating the possible disastrous consequences of such a massive project, including the uncertainty when it comes to ecological harm and the displacement of numerous people from their own homes.
Existing technology allows us to shape the Earth on a relatively large scale, or to control large masses of water from lakes to direct them towards reservoirs, to be used for electric power generation. However, the close future might offer us the possibility to separate bodies of water as large as the Red Sea from the ocean. A similar macro-scale project is in the planing stage and it will probably be placed in the Hormuz Strait to act as a barrier and generate enormous quantities of electric energy by exploiting the evaporative cycle of the incoming seawater.
Preliminary calculations show that the incoming seawater of the Red Sea, with high evaporative potential, could possibly generate up to 50 gigawatts of power, while the largest nuclear power plant in the U.S. can only produce an output of 3.2 gigawatts of power.
However, current technology makes the project economically not viable, due to the costs and the timescale necessary to build such a structure, as well as the risks related to the ecological devastation produced by the macro-engineering project. Nevertheless, it could produce high quantities of energy without producing greenhouse effect gases, which could prove an alternative to fossil fuels in the future.
Until then the international community is struggling with the paradox this kind of project implies, produce energy without greenhouse emission, yet interfere with the whole ecology, tourism and transport which could possibly have a global impact. Scientists say that the decision regarding the damming of the Sea cannot be made yet, since the precautionary principle cannot be applied to such a project and the risks related to the negative effects such a structure might pose would fall on the shouders of the surrounding countries, if they decide to build the dam.