Micro climate change project.
There was a project in the 1980s that was going to build what were essentially giant cooling towers in Death Valley for power generation and a terra forming experiment.
The plan was to desalinate seawater and pump it in from the coast. Pumping cost was to be kept low by using gravity feed techniques developed by the Romans to get water to the valley floor 280 feet below sea level.
Solar and wind power would then power pumps to spray the water at the top of the towers. The falling water-cooled air was to spin turbines built into the towers.
They expected the down wind plume of moisture from the towers to be kind of a natural irrigation.
The power production was to be modest with the biggest gain being the natural irrigation of down wind crops verses trying to pump in fresh water from inland.
