3 ms·
The economics of desalination can be complex, but the TL;DR is that in most cases it's only economical when there's no alternative for potable water and not ind
by hylaride 2y ago
The economics of desalination can be complex, but the TL;DR is that in most cases it's only economical when there's no alternative for potable water and not industrial/agricultural use (though that doesn't stop some places from doing it anyways for security or too much money reasons, particularly Saudi Arabia).
Desalination also doesn't help inland areas like Mexico city, as there'd also be large costs to pump the water from the coasts - Mexico City is 2200m above sea level.
The only nuclear powered surface vessels left in the US fleet are the Aircraft Super-carriers, and their water is created for supporting itself - ~5-6K sailors and any that's needed for operations (cleaning, steam launchers on the Nimitz, etc).
Nuclear micro-reactors are still a ways away and are probably not a viable option for developing countries - Mexico currently has only one nuclear power plant. There is probably a future for nuclear powered desalination for coastal cities in arid areas, but it won't help everywhere.
- matthewdgreen 2y agoIs it actually cheaper to power this with nuclear plants (especially micro-reactors that don't really exist in production) than just deploying a lot of wind/solar/batteries to do it?
- hylaride 2y agoWe don't know because nobody is mass building any nuclear reactors right now (micro or traditional - it's one of the main reasons there's so many cost overruns with anything being built right now). There's also no mass scale example of renewable desalination, either. It's almost all bespoke, so it's mostly theoretical. If climate change continues and water becomes something to fight over like oil was in the 20th century, then we may finally see traction on both fronts.
- matthewdgreen 2y agoBut there are pretty large-scale deployments of renewables and battery storage going on, so presumably some fraction of the power used in today’s desalinization plants is generated from renewables (at least in China.) At very least there should be no deep mysteries about the generation costs.
- hylaride 2y agoSure, but desalination is very power hungry. In Oman they managed to get a desalination plant to be 1/3 directly covered by solar in the desert and they still need alternative power for when that 1/3 is unavailable. Battery costs are still high. If it was that easy, it would be done.
- matthewdgreen 2y agoWhat’s technically more achievable: adapting desalinization so it can work efficiently on intermittent power, reducing battery costs, or getting SMRs up and widely deployed along the Mexican coast in the next decade? I don’t have any idea if the answer to this but I don’t think they’re all equally pie in the sky either.
- hylaride 2y agoIn theory, SMRs - *if* they're built out at scale (meaning for many other uses). The problem is the first users are going to pay a premium and it likely won't happen until they're already scaled out (and may still have to compete with renewable subsidies). Renewables should still be competitive in certain cases, though.