4 ms·

I knew it was expensive, but I really thought most of the costs were in the energy. And, being in a desert means that solar is really effective - the latitude c

I knew it was expensive, but I really thought most of the costs were in the energy. And, being in a desert means that solar is really effective - the latitude certainly helps too. I also saw that drewnick also posted that San Diego has a desal plant. That one sounds small - but I could see that scaled up x10, and then drop 20 of them along the coastlines. Reclamation should also be definitely part of the overall plan too. But if the water input is gown that far down, no amount of reclamation will fix low source.

mjevans 4y ago
None of that exists in a vacuum. The salt has to go somewhere, and brine (concentrated salt water) is harmful to the environment and wild-life. I imagine the only effective way to handle it is to designate a deep water area that is politically acceptable to 'sacrifice' and pump the output entirely to that site. This is of course going to be extremely energy intensive and also will probably leak frequently as earthquakes and ship anchorage destroy the pipe. Any form of thermal based power generation is going to have similar issues with it's cooling water (which is required in the heat differential that produces useful energy). Cars have radiator fans and waste heat from the engine for this exact reason. Radical changes to reduce the quantity of water lost to current uses are probably required. I suspect one of them might be to boil the hell out of some of the waste treatment water that's clearer, or even as a distillation method, and send it off for use in recreation field watering and some farming where that makes sense. Lawns as a decorative feature or social status symbol should be banned. Greenhouses and Solar Updraft Tower hybrids ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower ) might be a required conversion for farming regions.

mjevans 4y ago

None of that exists in a vacuum. The salt has to go somewhere, and brine (concentrated salt water) is harmful to the environment and wild-life. I imagine the only effective way to handle it is to designate a deep water area that is politically acceptable to 'sacrifice' and pump the output entirely to that site. This is of course going to be extremely energy intensive and also will probably leak frequently as earthquakes and ship anchorage destroy the pipe. Any form of thermal based power generation is going to have similar issues with it's cooling water (which is required in the heat differential that produces useful energy). Cars have radiator fans and waste heat from the engine for this exact reason. Radical changes to reduce the quantity of water lost to current uses are probably required. I suspect one of them might be to boil the hell out of some of the waste treatment water that's clearer, or even as a distillation method, and send it off for use in recreation field watering and some farming where that makes sense. Lawns as a decorative feature or social status symbol should be banned. Greenhouses and Solar Updraft Tower hybrids ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower ) might be a required conversion for farming regions.