At least in the US it is not a win. The Carlsbad desalination plant [1] cost $1 billion to build, and it produces 190000 tons of desalinated water per day, or

At least in the US it is not a win. The Carlsbad desalination plant [1] cost $1 billion to build, and it produces 190000 tons of desalinated water per day, or 5.7 million tons per month. Assuming a 6% financing cost, and 30 years amortization, you pay $6 million per month, or about $1 per ton of fresh water. That's a cost you incur whether you desalinate the water or not. If you decide to run the plant at 50%, then that's $2 per ton. It takes 3.6 kWh to desalinate a ton of water. The cost of electricity in California is about $0.12/kWh for industrial users, so that's about $0.44 per ton of desalinated water. Let's say you switch from the current electricity providers to solar generation that is absolutely free. Then you save $0.44 for each ton, but incur an additional capital cost of $1. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsbad_Desalination_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsba...