Desalination: Key Numbers Every Professional Should Know
From CAPEX to energy consumption, construction timelines to water costs—5 essential questions to understand what it really takes to build and operate a desalination plant.
A few weeks ago, I met with Marco Cioffi, from Ansaldo Energy, who was running the numbers for his business, discussed at the recent Valencia conference.
Welcome to another Tuesday edition of Desalination MBA Insights!
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Small and medium sized nuclear reactors are suitable for desalination, often with cogeneration of electricity using low-pressure steam from the turbine and hot seawater feed from the final cooling system.
I found this approach absolutely fascinating. I hadn’t fully appreciated it until I spoke with Marco and moderated his panel at the Valencia Desalination Tech Expo a few weeks ago.
This is a topic I’ll be diving into in more detail in upcoming editions.
Here are the 5 key questions I discussed with Marco and almost everyone should ask to get a sense of desalination costs and the macro factors to consider:
1️⃣ How much does the CAPEX of a desalination plant cost?
2️⃣ How much does the water really cost per cubic meter?
3️⃣ How long does it take to build a desalination plant?
4️⃣ How much energy does a desalination plant consume?
5️⃣ What is the power requirement for a large desalination plant?
So let’s start one by one: