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Jordan’s King Abdullah Wants Renewable Energy to Power Star Trek Theme Park

Jordan’s King Abdullah is a big Star Trek fan (and actually played an extra on the show). He likes the series so much that he’s backing the construction of a $1.5 billion Star-Trek themed park in his country.

That’s good news for fellow Star-Trek geeks who can afford a ticket to Jordan. But there’s good news for clean energy geeks too: The park will integrate renewables, water recycling systems and an educational center on energy issues, reports the Middle East Hotelier.

The themed entertainment destination will also serve as a model for “green energy,” incorporating state-of-the-art renewable technologies throughout the facility, and hosting a “future” pavilion where businesses, students and attendees can learn about alternative energy sources ranging from solar and wind energy to greywater harvesting.

There are no details in the early reports on how much renewable energy will be used. But the key word here is “incorporating,” hopefully meaning that these systems will be on-site and not some gimmick common in the services industry where a resort pretends to be “sustainable” by purchasing renewable energy credits.

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And really, Jordan can’t afford to be gimmicky. The country has terrible water resources and relies mostly on imported energy, making the construction of a $1.5 billion energy-intensive theme park in the middle of the desert a particularly challenging task.

As King Abdullah goes about building this 180-acre entertainment complex, we can only hope he follows the words of Captain Picard in Star Trek: Generations: “What we leave behind is as important as how we’ve lived.”