A Modular Desert Archipelago Architecture for Integrated Solar-Driven Water Production, Thermal Management, Agriculture, and Resource Recovery: A Concept Paper

Abstract

This concept paper proposes a modular, distributed desert architecture for integrated freshwater production, thermal management, agriculture, and resource recovery. The system is organized as an artificial functional archipelago of physically separated units rather than a single centralized desalination plant. Each unit combines an elevated, enclosed, predominantly solar-absorptive disc-shaped seawater evaporator; photovoltaic power generation; one or more enclosed reflective vapor-transport pipes; localized solar-powered condensation nodes; buried condensation and freshwater-storage reservoirs; vegetation above and around the underground storage zone; agricultural use of the shaded space beneath the elevated structure; and progressive brine concentration with salt and resource recovery. The architecture deliberately separates the hot evaporation stage from the cooler underground condensation and storage stage and treats water, energy, thermal management, land use, agriculture, and brine handling as a coupled system. Reservoir diameter and depth, elevation, vapor-outlet number and diameter, pipe geometry, burial depth, condensation-node placement and capacity, photovoltaic area, vegetation density, agricultural use, and unit spacing are retained as experimental design variables rather than fixed dimensions. The paper develops governing mass and energy balances, including the dominant latent-heat requirement associated with evaporation and condensation, and examines ground thermal coupling, solar-electric cooling requirements, seawater transport energy, water quality, environmental effects, and a preliminary techno-economic framework. A staged prototype program is proposed from bench-scale testing through a multi-unit desert pilot. The novelty claim is deliberately conservative. Individual components such as solar evaporation, underground storage, photovoltaic power, condensation, agrivoltaic shading, and brine recovery are established technologies. The proposed contribution lies in their specific spatial and modular integration: physically separated elevated hot evaporators coupled to cooler underground condensation and storage, localized active condensation nodes, vegetation-assisted thermal management, shaded agricultural use, resource recovery, and experimentally optimized variable unit geometry. The concept is not presented as a proven desalination solution. Its thermodynamic feasibility, freshwater productivity, underground heat-rejection capacity, vegetation water balance, durability, environmental performance, and economic competitiveness remain to be established experimentally. Explicit failure modes and falsifiability criteria are included so that the architecture can be quantitatively modeled, prototyped, refined, substantially redesigned, or rejected on evidence.