And further, couldn’t they be used to power turbines as well through steam power?
In: Other
Desalination could absolutely be an option to meet urban and residential needs. Depending on water management in wet and dry years, urban and residential water usage only accounts for 8-11pct of the total state water usage. The remaining ~90pct goes to agricultural (Farming and Livestock) and environmental (Delta outflow, instream flows, and managed wetlands, etc) usage.
The problem with desalination is not so much the cost, although it typically costs 50pct -100pct more than ground water sources. The bigger issue is with Boron. Boron is difficult to remove from brackish water/seawater and in high concentrations it is toxic to plants when it accumulates in top soil. This makes desalinated water generally unsuitable for irrigation. It *can* be removed from water and there is a lot of research into various mechanisms to do so, but it adds additional cost and these processes don’t exist at the scale to meet agricultural demands.
Latest Answers