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"We are coming to a point in our history in which we need to start looking for more space," Han Admiraal, a civil engineer with over two decades of experience in underground space, told AFP on the sidelines of this year's World Tunnel Congress.
...
"Underground spaces could easily be used for growing crops," he said, as he toured the cavernous Bourbon Tunnel, dug deep under the Italian city of Naples as a potential escape route for King Ferdinand II of Bourbon after the 1848 riots.Scientific developments in areas like aquaponics—where vegetables and fish are farmed together—could help relieve the pressure on the food supply chain, and dramatically cut transport costs if such new farms were situated under cities.
Isn't excavation expensive?
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday May 10 2019, @09:03AM (3 children)
LED lights safer, more effective in producing Vitamin D3 than sunlight [sciencedaily.com]
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 10 2019, @11:40AM
wow. I had no idea. thanks for the link.
(I still think the GP is right in saying that overground is better for living than underground).
(Score: 2) by ledow on Friday May 10 2019, @03:44PM (1 child)
Yes, and?
"The UV LED device also emits a much narrower band of UVB light and thereby decreasing likelihood of skin damage that can occur when the skin is exposed to higher wavelengths of UV radiation."
Plants don't only need a narrow band of UVB.
And there is zero information there about HOW efficient it is - it's might be more efficient than sunlight, but sunlight is free, thereby almost infinitely efficient. Whether running 12V into a large-wattage LED sufficient to replicate the UV (and other visible light) radiation given out by the sun and necessary for crop growing is actually viable is another matter entirely. You might well lose 50% of the energy before you start, and require an enormous amount of energy after that to transform seedlings into wheat crops sufficient to feed a city (or whatever).
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday May 12 2019, @06:57PM
It was a lazy reply, I didn't realize it was all about plants.
Cheap nuclear fusion electricity could help make growing plants underground or vertically more viable.
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