Tapping the oceans (opens in new tab)

(economist.com)

5 points0_o17y ago5 comments

5 comments

4 comments · 2 top-level

ALee17y ago· 2 in thread

Desalination has been around for quite some time, but the alternatives are so much less expensive that it's adoption won't increase until populations reach critical levels.

blogimus17y ago

Maybe we have reached a critical point of potable water shortage because according to the this report http://www.bccresearch.com/report/MST052A.html,

"The global market for seawater and brackish water desalination plants increased from $1.7 billion in 2005 to $1.9 billion in 2007. It should reach $3.6 billion by 2012, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.4%."

Retric17y ago

Hold up $1.7 billion in 2005 to $1.9 billion in 2007 is not 13.4%. 1.9billion/1.7billion = 1.118 but it's over 2 years so: 1.118 ^.5 = 1.057 which is ~2% faster than inflation.

Edit: 1.7billion * 1.7 * 1.057 * 1.057 = 1.9billion and 1.9 billion * 1.057 ^5 is 2.5billion in 2012. So, their numbers seem off.

1 more reply

ph0rque17y ago

> The Perth plant, which uses technology from Energy Recovery, a firm based in California, consumes only 3.7kWh to produce one cubic metre of drinking water.

This comes out to $0.37/264gal of water, assuming $0.10/kWh.

edit: should have read the next paragraph before posting :-/

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