The Port of Corpus Christi Commission Board voted to move forward Tuesday in securing the permits needed to open up a desalination facility on Harbor Island.
With the population projected to rise from 9.5 million in 2022 to between 15 and 25 million by 2065, the country would still need to virtually quadruple its desalination capacity, even if population growth slows from more than 2.0% to 0.8%.
An Israeli company is to build a $5.5 billion desalination plant in Mexico, to supply the US state of Arizona with drinking water.
The desalination plant will be connected to a water distribution facility and reservoir in Arizona through a 1,000 ft-long series of pumps and pipes. It will draw water from the Sea of Cortez, desalinate it, and provide up to one billion cubic meters a year to Arizona.
Berlin-based Boreal Light has developed water desalination tech powered by PV for off-grid applications. The solution uses 460 W solar panels from Chinese module manufacturer DAH Solar and produces clean water from direct seawater at a cost of €0.50 ($0.54)/m3.
The recent Lamar Holding/Mowah winning bid for the $693 million Jafurah desalination project in Saudi is being debt financed via local bank.
The plant is expected to be functional in the next four years and will process 200 million litres of water per day (MLD). Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) P Velrasu confirmed the development.
Officials also said that the plant’s capacity could later be increased to 400MLD, if needed. The project is estimated to cost Rs1,600 crore and maintenance for the next 20 years will cost another Rs1,920 crore.
Israel must build up to 30 more desalination plants – or face major water scarcity by 2065.
Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem estimate it will need to desalinate at much as 3.7 billion cubic meters (m3) annually by 2065, compared to 0.5 billion m3 in 2020. One cubic meter is 1,000 liters of water.
The Iranian Energy Ministry is determined to add at least 400,000 cubic meters to the capacity of the country’s water desalination plants by the end of the current government incumbency (2025), the deputy head of National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company said.
The seawater desalination plant will be located adjacent to the Manyar Smelter Project. It will produce over 1,400 m3/hr of desalinated seawater to support the copper smelter and precious metals refinery. Designed to process 1.7 million tonnes per year (MTPA) of copper concentrate, the $3 billion Manyar Smelter is anticipated to be the world’s largest designed single line copper processing facility.
Once again, Rodrigues is setting an example in terms of ecology. On Saturday, June 22, the Hotel Les Cocotiers inaugurated a desalination station that runs solely on solar energy. It is the first hotel in the world to be supplied with drinking water in this way.