Fatma BEN FADHL

Acting Executive Director

Global Clean Water Desalination Alliance

http://www.gcwda.org

DESALINATION IS A SUITABLE OPTION TOMEET GROWING DEMAND FORWATER

Freshwater sources are depleting: more than 2 billion people are currently experiencing water stress and more than 4

billion severe water scarcity

Global water demand is increasing by about 1% per year since 1980s and is expected to keep rising due to population

growth, socio-economic development, and changing consumption patterns

Water stress will keep rising as water demand grows and the effects of climate change deepening, by 2030 the world

could face a 40 percent shortfall in water supply if no changes are made in how water is managed

Improved Water management and/or Desalination are in increasingly more places the only available option to meet the

rising water demand.

2013 2040

THE DESALINATION INDUSTRY FACES ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE CHALLENGES

Energy intensive process and largely powered by fossil fuel sources as of today.

State-of-the-art, large-scale seawater reverse osmosis plants consume about 3.5 kWhe/m3 of fresh water.

The associated carbon footprint is around 2.1 to 3.6 kg CO2/m3, depending on the fossil fuel source.

Worldwide, operational desalination plants emit around 76 million tonnes of CO2 per year. The emissions are expected

to increase to around 500 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2040 if no actions are undertaken.

• Baseline scenario assumes compounded growth rate of water desalination of 10% per year

• Target scenario assumes gradual introduction of fully renewable powered desalination until 2040

Source: Global Clean Water Desalination Alliance

CLEANWATER DESALINATION AS A SOLUTION

The climate impact of desalination can be addressed by creatively couple desalination plants with renewable and

alternative energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal, osmotic power, wave, or nuclear energy sources to provide the

required clean energy input.

Renewable energy powered desalination represents a cost-effective option to:

Decarbonize water production

Reduce impact on the electricity grid through on-site renewable energy production

Reduce production cost of desalinated water

Utility-Scale Renewable Energy Powered Desalination

Small Scale Solar Seawater Desalination – Direct Coupling (Off-grid)

Small Scale Solar Seawater Desalination – Grid Connected

COST OF RENEWABLEWATER DESALINATION

The cost of desalinated water produced with renewable energy sources depends on many factors:

Composition of source water (dissolved and suspended solids, turbidity, BOD, COD, boron, etc.)

Requirements for the product water (use for drinking, irrigation, industrial use, etc.)

Accessibility to source water

Available renewable energy sources (solar, wind, geothermal)

Production capacity

Creditworthiness of water off-taker

Availability of bank financing

Utility-Scale

(above 100,000 m3/d)

CAPEX of RO system [USD/m3/d] ~ 1,200

CAPEX of PV system [USD/kWDC] ~ 700

OPEX of RO [annually as % of CAPEX]

~ 4%

OPEX of PV [annually as % of CAPEX]

~ 1%

Levelized water cost [USD/m3] ~ 0.60

Indicative costs (assuming seawater desalination with grid connected PV powered RO)

Assuming a location with good solar resource (i.e. global horizontal irradiation around 2,000 kWh/m2/a)

FUNDING CLEAN WATER DESALINATION

Financing through the climate vertical funds and public grants of national clean desalination roadmaps,

clean desalination pilot projects, a knowledge database as well as the organization of dialogue events and

investment fora

Conditions to allow competitive cost of clean desalination: policy, regulations, cost reflective pricing and

common contractual practices (e.g. Adapted tendering processes)

Public private partnerships to fund further technology development (RD&D)

Incentive approaches for investments and partnerships needed to mobilize co-financing and examine

carbon offsetting mechanisms and other climate finance schemes to enable private finance in sustainable

desalination projects.

Thank You for your Attention