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Mega Projects

What is a Mega Project?

A mega project is a very large scale investment project.  They are typically defined as costing more than one billion dollars US and attract a lot of public attention due to their impacts on communities, budgets, and the environment.  Mega projects can include such things as bridges, highways, tunnels, dams, wastewater projects, power plants, and oil and gas extraction projects, to name a few.

Cooling Projects

Mega cooling projects are using water from lakes or the sea in order to cool buildings.  These projects save on energy consumption and also reduce the impact on the environment.  Simply speaking, these projects take low temperature water from the bottom of a lake or sea, and use it to chill a network of pipes that carry water for use in air conditioning systems throughout a number of buildings.

Intake pipes extend a number of kilometres into the lake or sea, to find water that is close to freezing.  The cold water is passed through heat exchangers and then sent to buildings throughout a city where more heat exchangers provide cooling.  Heated water is pumped back to a plant where it is passed through a final set of heat exchangers.  The energy is absorbed by the water supply with no noticeable effect on temperature.

These types of cooling mega projects can reduce electricity use by up to 90 percent compared with conventional air conditioning.

Water Projects

Mega water projects can involve laying water supply pipelines so that areas that are short in water gain water from areas that have water to spare.  These pipelines can be laid over many kilometres and water lifting pumping stations are included at regular intervals along the pipeline.  Depending on the size of the supply line, millions of litres of water can be delivered.  These water projects are excellent for drier, more arid areas, or areas that are prone to drought.

Large scale desalination plants are another option.  Another type of water mega project is to divert rivers in order to fill lakes or seas that are depleted.

One of the most famous water mega projects is the Aswan High Dam.  Upstream threats to Egypt’s water supplies were met with this project to secure an “over-year” supply of water within the country’s borders.

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