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I’m sure I’m naive, but (eventual) cheap solar plus desalination seems like a great way supplement the obvious water shortfalls headed our way. I find the oppo
by chrisbrandow 4y ago
I’m sure I’m naive, but (eventual) cheap solar plus desalination seems like a great way supplement the obvious water shortfalls headed our way.
I find the opposition to be shortsighted. I feel like we are rapidly approaching the point where we should be beginning the work on the last resorts while also continuing to work on the other options like recycling, etc.
Especially given today’s article in latimes about parts of socal requiring max of 85 gallons daily. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-04-30/can-you-get-by-on-just-80-gallons-of-water-a-day https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-04-30/can-you-...
- AndrewDucker 4y agoThe problem with desalination is that you don't extract all of the water, you extract half of it, leaving a bunch of very salty water to be dumped back into the ocean, causing dead zones.
- ncmncm 4y agoPiping the brine farther out to sea, with leaky pipe, mitigates that. A better solution is direct solar thermal desalination, and flushing at night. Brine might also be drained to the Salton Sea.
- ncmncm 4y agoUntil all of fossil fuel demand is displaced, solar will not be cheap enough for desalination. After that point, it will be reasonable, but we are years away from that. We should make farmers not hosting dual-use solar on their fields subsidize farmers who do. (Dual-use generates power, and also increased ag yield, reduced water loss, and more PV efficiency.)