More than 150 km inland from the nearest beach and on the edge of the desert Joshua Tree National Park, in the state of California, it is built the first artificial wave pool in a desert: the DSRT Surf, a leisure complex built thanks to Basque Wavegarden technology.
DSRT Surf is one of the 4 wave pool projects that are beginning to be developed in the Californian areaand is also part of the rest of the Surf parks that Wavergarden has around the world: Brazil, Switzerland, Korea, Australia, Scotland and now the United States. In total 10 under construction and another 50 projects in the future.
The novelty of the Spanish company’s technology is that it can generate between 400 and 500 large waves with 400 kilowatts per hour or less, according to the company. “That means that the amount of installed energy we need is low and is actually quite feasible with a relatively small amount of solar energy.
200 million dollars and 20 hectares of land
Although the project was announced in 2019 by the Palm Desert City Council, in California, construction work only began at the end of last May, and the emergence of The COVID-19 health crisis paralyzed the progress of the project.
The $236 million project, called DSRT Surf is one of 4 wave parks planned for the southeast area of Los Angeles. where, ironically, water is usually scarce most of the year. This is why the design of Beach Street Development and Operations, a specialist in resort development, is oriented towards sustainability to avoid the waste of energy and other resources. In this way, a third of the annual water from the new surf pool will be used to irrigate the area.
Thus, it is a project that, in addition to the different facilities for surfing, including hotels, residences, restaurant areas and leisure areas, over 20 hectares. In fact, its location replaces a long stretch of golf courses that, in comparison, will save thousands of liters of water.
The surf park’s promoters point out that it is expected that The DSRT surf lagoon uses approximately 8% of the water of the 18-hole golf course in the Coachella Valley. Additionally, the resort will offset the wave pool’s annual consumption of 23.8 million gallons of drinking water by replacing part of the golf course’s surrounding grass with drought-resistant landscaping.
On the other hand, the new wave pool will have capacity for up to 70 surfers, whether they are experts or beginners, and up to 52 modules that can recreate waves of different heights, speeds and shapes.
Wavegarden Technology
“Unique technology developed in house. The Wavegarden Cove wave generator is modular. Each module is made up of a blade powered by an electromechanical system that moves water particles, as occurs in sea waves. Depending on the sequence of movement, the waves change typology and size.
Developing the best technology has always been the priority of Wavegarden, the Spanish company that is the market leader in the emerging sector of dynamic artificial waves. with the focus on recreating surfing experiences miles from the sea and provide ideal conditions for everyone, especially in those areas far from the coast. In this way, Wavegarden manages to improve sea conditions when they are unfavorable or dangerous such as poor quality waves, too many people, currents and other natural hazards.
Thus, thanks to advances in computational fluid dynamics (the science of how water flows) and the rapid decline in the cost of computing power, The Basque company has cracked the code to replicate the complex physics of breaking ocean waves.
Regarding the development of technology in an efficient and sustainable way, “Wavegarden Cove is the most sustainable and efficient artificial wave generator in the world, with energy consumption 10 times lower than any other system. In a busy surf park that produces between 1 and 2 million waves per year, our technology can save you between €2-3 million per year (with an average electricity price of €0.15 per kWh).”
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