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Exactly! And as "natural" water becomes more scarce, prices will rise, incentivizing investment and innovation in desalination, making it more and more efficien
by paulbaumgart 12y ago
Exactly! And as "natural" water becomes more scarce, prices will rise, incentivizing investment and innovation in desalination, making it more and more efficient over time.
- Afforess 12y agoDesalination has a fixed energy cost that can't be "innovated" away. It requires at minimum, 1kwH/m^3, in a completely 100% energy efficient system (such a perfect system does not exist). That is the base energy required to boil the water away. Chemistry isn't like software, you can't innovate away the laws of physics.
- paulbaumgart 12y agoI don't think our statements are incompatible (there's plenty of room for optimizing capex, even if opex has clear physical limits), but that reminds me of one of my favorite Simpsons quotes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vxHkAQRQUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vxHkAQRQUQ