Crystal Lagoons Cools Power Plants Using Swimming Pool Technology

Could a swimming pool on the coast of Chile hold an answer to reducing industrial energy waste in the U.S.?

Crystal Lagoons, the Santiago, Chile-based creator of the Guinness world record-holding swimming pool at San Alfonso del Mar, has announced a new use of its technology – cooling power plants – along with the opening of its first U.S. office in Princeton, New Jersey, to help oversee its application.

At Babson College’s Latin Entrepreneur Forum, Crystal Lagoons CEO Fernando Fischmann showed how his method of purifying large bodies of water, using little energy or chemicals, will be used to reduce energy waste, water consumption and environmental damage caused by the cooling of thermal power plants.

The most widespread cooling method in the energy industry is called “once-through cooling.” It draws water from a natural source, uses it to cool a plant and returns it, super-heated, to the same natural source. This devastates aquatic life, wastes precious energy and water and is outlawed in some states.

“The technology I developed at Crystal Lagoons uses a closed system of man-made cooling ponds,” said Fischmann. “Now power plants can be moved further inland from coasts, aquatic life will be saved, water will be conserved and the resulting energy reservoirs can be used for building heating, desalination and other uses.”

Fischmann’s technology makes crystal-clear water using a low-energy system of sensors and pulse-based injectors that use 100 times fewer chemicals than a swimming pool and 10 times less water than a golf course. A trained biochemist, Fischmann also offered to donate his patented technology to Babson College, to build the first Crystal Lagoon in the U.S.

A newcomer to the travel and tourism, real estate, technology and energy industries, Crystal Lagoons is already valued at $1.8 billion by the Boston Consulting Group: more than Facebook or Yahoo! in their early stages. The U.S. office will be the company’s third, following offices in Santiago and Dubai.

San Alfonso del Mar, the company’s first completed lagoon in Algarrobo, Chile, holds the Guinness record for “world’s largest swimming pool,” is 3/5 mile long and holds 66 million gallons of water. Projects in development include the $5.5 billion “City of Stars Lagoons,” complex in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, which features 30,000 home units, six five-star hotels, museums, golf courses, a shopping center and the next world record-breaking lagoon, and the “Dead Sea Lagoon” in Jordan. Both are scheduled to open within a year.

Crystal Lagoons builds beach paradises anywhere, for people to relax, sail, swim and participate in water sports. It was founded in 2007 by Chilean biochemist-turned-real estate entrepreneur Fernando Fischmann. The company has more than 165 real estate projects planned worldwide, in 42 countries on five continents. For more information, visit crystal-lagoons.com.