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Desalination plants have been tried in Europe for some time, and they still are problematic. They use lots of energy. And then you need to get rid of hills of
by pvaldes 4y ago
Desalination plants have been tried in Europe for some time, and they still are problematic.
They use lots of energy. And then you need to get rid of hills of salt. Stuff that obviously can't be just put in any fertile soil or returned to the sea near the coast. A partial solution could be to use it in winter roads, but then you need to burn gas to move it to the North. At some time, you will cross the line where the water obtained is cheaper than the energy used to produce it plus collateral effects. And at this point the plant is not profitable and is just burning money to run.
So, I hate to say that, but there is no magic solution at sight, still.
This planet has a fabulous technology available for making excellent pure water. The problem is that we burn them all, each year.
- skybrian 4y agoThe Carlsbad plant actually does return it to the ocean: "The desalination process converts two gallons of seawater to one gallon of drinking water, and one gallon of water with twice the salinity of seawater. The concentrated seawater is diluted before it enters the ocean" https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/environmental-faqs.html https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/environmental-faqs.html
- pvaldes 4y agoEnvironmental laws in Europe are more strict I think (I could be wrong). The Mediterranean and the Pacific are very different in any case. At the coast this would cause a lot of shallow dead areas and would affect protected ecosystems like the Sea-grass beds that is required for sustainable fisheries