My math may be wrong, but let’s walk through that. Would we say that something like tomatoes would need about 3” of water per week? Maybe this is where I’m off. But, at 3” over an acre, which is 43560 sq. ft., that’s 81,460 gallons, at the $0.002196/gallon, I come up with $180 per acre. I didn’t look at the math on the price per gallon, but I’m guessing that’s just the construction cost and doesn’t include operating costs? Is my math wrong?
Sorek will profitably sell water to the Israeli water authority for 58 U.S. cents per cubic meter
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That works out out to $715@acre foot. The Poseidon desalination plant being built in Carlsbad California will deslinate seawater for about $2000@acre foot.
The Australians built 6 or 7 desalination plants from about 2003-2009 that produce desalinized water for 1600@acre foot.
Singapore is said to be producing desalinized water in the $500@acre foot range. Its hard to say in the case of both Singapore and Israel how much government support is behind the official numbers.
High value cash crops generally need water to be under $300@acre foot and field crops need water to be under $100@acre foot.
This will happen in time. Maybe 10-20 years. The pieces are already on the table. lftr msr thorium reactors promise to collapse the cost of energy. There are experimental membranes that allow the water to pass through them at room temperature and pressure. There are technologies available which turn Na and Cl into a profit center instead of a cost center. Material research is yielding materials that are ever more resistant to the corrosive effects of salt water.
These technologies will someday come together. And the planet will be radically changed. Because cheap desalinized water and transport will effectively turn the deserts green and double the size of the habitable earth.
California used to understand water and plan ahead for decades. The last governor who did that was Jerry Brown’s dad Pat. Jerry just thinks of vain things like Bullet trains snail darters.
Maybe the current drought will slap some sense into the genius inventors of silicon valley as to the true priorities of California.
Someone might tell Elon Musk that the way to the deserts of Mars leads through the deserts of California.
Per week