Many consumers will just replace the outside compressor unit when it fails and limp along with a smaller interior evaporator coil, negating most of the energy savings.

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"The saltwater going out of the greenhouses will go to the CSP to cool it -- which makes it more efficient -- and then it will go to the evaporator 'hedges' which create good growing conditions for crops outside and revegetate areas of desert, " he said.

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