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It's way easier to move electric. There's a decent chance desalination on the west coast would be cheaper than building pipelines and canals to move water 1500

It's way easier to move electric. There's a decent chance desalination on the west coast would be cheaper than building pipelines and canals to move water 1500 miles. Moving water from the Pacific Northwest would be easier, but that would be an Alaska Pipeline-level endeavor (likely more since you'll want more water than oil) for something that's worth cents per gallon, not dollars.

recuter 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man-Made_River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man-Made_River Analysts say that the costs of the $25 billion groundwater extraction system are 10% those of desalination. It is the largest underground network of pipes (2820km / 1750 miles) and aqueducts in the world. It consists of more than 1,300 wells, most more than 500 m deep, and supplies 6,500,000 m3 of fresh water per day to the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte and elsewhere. The late Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi described it as the "Eighth Wonder of the World". Of course this is from the 1980s in a completely different part of the planet with totally different circumstances and not directly comparable. But makes one wonder as to the veracity of your statement. Sadly, it is entirely plausible present day US can't perform mega projects as well as a crazed Libyan dictator from half a century ago.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  We already do this sort of thing in effect with the great aquifers of the US midwest. The result has been the almost unimaginable depletion of the aquifers. You can't pull water out of an aquifer faster than it refills, at least not for very long. They can act as a "water bank" for a limited time, but if you're actually using more water per unit of land area than falls as rain or flows through, the "limited time" part is of critical importance.
- dehrmann 5y ago
  It's fair to wonder, and it's an interesting project. I think the main difference is Libya is very flat compared to the US, so a lot of the construction is easier. The main caveat to their approach is that "the aquifer could be depleted of water in as soon as 60 to 100 years."
kylehotchkiss 5y ago
https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/ https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/ 7% of San Diego’s water comes from the ocean! Getting this tech cheaper should be worthy of more VC funding
Gibbon1 5y ago
I happened upon a list of water sources for Los Angeles a couple of years ago that listed the energy requirement for each source. It ranged from minimal to maybe half the amount required to desalinate water. That points to you being right that desalinization is cheaper than trying to tap new sources of fresh water.

recuter 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man-Made_River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man-Made_River Analysts say that the costs of the $25 billion groundwater extraction system are 10% those of desalination. It is the largest underground network of pipes (2820km / 1750 miles) and aqueducts in the world. It consists of more than 1,300 wells, most more than 500 m deep, and supplies 6,500,000 m3 of fresh water per day to the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte and elsewhere. The late Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi described it as the "Eighth Wonder of the World". Of course this is from the 1980s in a completely different part of the planet with totally different circumstances and not directly comparable. But makes one wonder as to the veracity of your statement. Sadly, it is entirely plausible present day US can't perform mega projects as well as a crazed Libyan dictator from half a century ago.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
We already do this sort of thing in effect with the great aquifers of the US midwest. The result has been the almost unimaginable depletion of the aquifers. You can't pull water out of an aquifer faster than it refills, at least not for very long. They can act as a "water bank" for a limited time, but if you're actually using more water per unit of land area than falls as rain or flows through, the "limited time" part is of critical importance.
dehrmann 5y ago
It's fair to wonder, and it's an interesting project. I think the main difference is Libya is very flat compared to the US, so a lot of the construction is easier. The main caveat to their approach is that "the aquifer could be depleted of water in as soon as 60 to 100 years."

kylehotchkiss 5y ago

https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/ https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/ 7% of San Diego’s water comes from the ocean! Getting this tech cheaper should be worthy of more VC funding

Gibbon1 5y ago

I happened upon a list of water sources for Los Angeles a couple of years ago that listed the energy requirement for each source. It ranged from minimal to maybe half the amount required to desalinate water. That points to you being right that desalinization is cheaper than trying to tap new sources of fresh water.