Water-Starved Saudi Confronts Desalination's Heavy Toll

[Eugene]

Source: Agence France-Presse

September 17, 2023 10:35 AM
Agence France-Presse

Water-Starved Saudi Confronts Desalination's Heavy Toll

JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA — Solar panels soak up blinding noontime rays that help power a water desalination facility in eastern Saudi Arabia, a step towards making the notoriously emissions-heavy process less environmentally taxing.

The Jazlah plant in Jubail city applies the latest technological advances in a country that first turned to desalination more than a century ago, when Ottoman-era administrators enlisted filtration machines for hajj pilgrims menaced by drought and cholera.

Lacking lakes, rivers and regular rainfall, Saudi Arabia today relies instead on dozens of facilities that transform water from the Gulf and Red Sea into something potable, supplying cities and towns that otherwise would not survive.

But the kingdom's growing desalination needs — fueled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's dreams of presiding over a global business and tourism hub — risk clashing with its sustainability goals, including achieving net-zero emissions by 2060.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.voanews.com/a/water-starved-saudi-confronts-desalination-s-heavy-toll/7271844.html

Alternate link: https://news.yahoo.com/water-starved-saudi-confronts-desalinations-041227054.html

[Auggie]

1. This headline is misleading

What "heavy toll" from desalination? From the article it appears the Saudis have made incredible advances in sustainable sources of creating potable water. The real problem appears to by the ever present elephant in the room: too many people having too many kids.

[brush]

2. That headling puzzled me too.

What does this sentence mean:

"...a step towards making the notoriously emissions-heavy process less environmentally taxing."

How is desalinization environentally taxing if it's powered by solar energy?

[Auggie]

3. One wonders if the article was written and promoted by fossil fuel interests

[brush]

4. Oh, that maybe why. Of the fossil fuel industry had a hand in that.

That industry IMO has some real numbskulls leading it. Years ago the oil companies should jumped into the lead on green energy projects like solar, wind, geothermal etc. as they had the experience in distribution, publicity know-how and most importantly, the money to develop the new energy sources and they would be the face of it now and in control.

But no, the stuck with saving old energy and now will end up like Sears who had that extensive catalog but it's executives had no forsight and lost out that catalog business to Amazon.

You pay CEOs the big money to anticipate trends but in so many industries those fat cats just know now to guard the big checks, stock options and golden parachuts.

[NickB79]

7. Because it uses natural gas

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ras_Al-Khair_Power_and_Desalination_Plant

2400 MW natural gas.

[brush]

8. Ahhh...so the turbines are used to pump the sea water from the gulf?

[Brenda]

5. I did not read it that way at all.

I read the OP and it sounds like objective reporting which makes the situation sound absurd. Which it is.

Trillionaires made by Mid East Oil living in a desert where they use solar for homes and pump the water out of the surrounding oceans for use.

Doesn't sound accommodating to me, it sounds like journalism.

[NickB79]

6. Their desalination plants are primarily driven by natural gas plants

So it's using massive quantities of fossil fuels.

And desalination plants in general befoul the ocean water near them when they discharge brine, killing sea life.

[brush]

9. Wonder why they haven't figured out how to use solar...

to pump the water out of the gulf...and the brine, isn't is mostly salt?

[sl8]

10. The heavy toll is the massive use of fossil fuels adding CO2 to the atmosphere.

They are confronting the problem by trying to shift to solar power instead of fossil fuel.

[...]

By 2010, Saudi desalination facilities were consuming 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, more than 15 percent of today's production.

[...]

[hunter]

11. For various practical reasons desalinization plants are best run 24/7

No matter how many solar panels they install fossil fuels will always be the primary power source and solar supplemental.

Pumping desalinated water uphill to reservoirs could be accomplished exclusively with solar power.

As described in this article the installed solar is mostly greenwash.

Worldwide, we don't need to reduce fossil fuel use by some fraction, we need to quit fossil fuels entirely.

Good luck selling that to Saudi Arabia.

When that nation goes bust, possibly because of climate change, it's going to be catastrophic. There's going to be millions of refugees who are unlikely to be welcomed anywhere.

The only practical fossil fuel free source of energy for large scale desalinization is nuclear power.

A recent history of Saudi Nuclear Power ambitions can be found here:

https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-o-s/saudi-arabia.aspx

There are of course concerns about nuclear weapon proliferation.