The Dead Sea: A scheme for a solar lake

Abstract A theoretical scheme for modifying a salt basin into a solar lake is examined with respect to the Dead Sea. The mixing is reduced by a net of floating wind breaks. The discharge from the salt evaporation ponds of the Dead Sea chemical plants is used as a fource for ascending dense water at a rate of 0.7 m yr−1. This keeps the halocline against the residual mixing. In order to maximize the efficiency of the deep water formation in the salt evaporation ponds and to minimize the requirements of the wind breaks, the surface salinity of the solar lake is calculated to be 15 per cent, where the deep water will be kept at its present salinity, i.e. 26 per cent. The rate in which mixing converts kinetic to potential energy over the Dead Sea is estimated to be 2 × 10−4 W m−2. For the operation of the solar lake the wind breaks are required to reduce it by one order. For a temperature of 80°C the optimum depth of the halocline is 1.3–1.5 m and the theoretical recovery rate of energy is estimated to be 50–70 W of heat and 9–12 W m−2 for a Carnot engine, depending on the extinction coefficient.