Eli5: why haven’t we started considering or implementing large scale desalinization in response to our water shortages?
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Besides being very expensive and energy consuming, the waste created is difficult to deal with on the scales you are talking about. Best estimate are 1 gallon of brine for every gallon of fresh produced.
Not only expensive,. But the waste product is a nasty salt compound.
There are real issues on disposal of that waste
Cost, cost, cost…It’s probably a lot cheaper to arrange for water conservatism first than to build expensive desalination plants.
Money, my good (wo)man. Always think about money when asking why things are the way they are.
Basically desalination is more expensive than exploiting the remaining groundwater to the last drop.
We won’t adopt it in a widespread way until either the wells run dry for the people with lawmakers’ ears or desalinization becomes cheaper than groundwater.
It’s incredibly expensive and energy intensive. You only do it if absolutely, 100%, no other way to get it, needs to be done. Also it’s bad for the environment because usually they just dump the salt right back into the ocean making that spot super salinated. So a lot of money, a lot of energy and a lot of negative environmental impact.
Why can’t we just use large scale solar/wind/nuclear plants to power these farms and reduce cost of production?
Nonsense! We’ll keep debating how much it costs in dollars while water shortages grow. That’s the capitalist way 🫡
Can’t find it now, but some time ago I read a story about a new desalination plant being constructed in Florida. Partway through construction, a big storm swept across the state – not a hurricane or anything, just a big rainstorm.
The article said that the storm dumped more water on Florida in 12 hours than the desalination plant was going to produce during its entire expected lifetime.
There are a slew of reasons why people say we shouldn’t do water recycling and desalinization. Meanwhile some areas are seeing their water supplies dwindle year after year.
IMO the unfortunate reality is that many societies have grown accustomed to cheap and easy to access to freshwater (lakes, rivers and groundwater) and these sources are simply starting to run out – for a variety of reasons.
I 100% support reasonable water conservation policies (ie not allowing turf lawns in Las Vegas), but many areas simply NEED to expand their water supplies with water recycling and desalinization technologies.
The downside of doing this, is that consumers may need to pay more for a human necessity.
To potentially reduce costs and prevent unintended environmental harm, there needs to be continued funding from both the private and public sectors into brine mining, membrane technologies and electrolysis and renewable energy.
I live in a small coastal town where our water source is two local creeks. We have a desal plant for emergencies, but do not use it. The energy cost involved in the desal process would shoot everyone’s water bill through the roof. Does it work? Yes. Does it make sense? No. Too much energy usage.
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