The Water MBA

The Water MBA

The electrical hell of desalination.

The real bottleneck in desalination isn’t water, it’s power.

Ramon Rubio de Castro's avatar
Ramon Rubio de Castro
Jan 06, 2026
∙ Paid

We all know the narrative surrounding desalination: its primary challenge is energy consumption.

It is an energy-hungry industry. In fact, recent data suggests desalination accounts for roughly 20% of the entire water industry’s energy footprint worldwide.

But today, I want to talk about the “pain in the ass” that haunts every professional in this sector: the real chaos of the electrical system inside of Desalination Projects.

Today I share:

  1. Power is everything

  2. Scale creates complexity

  3. Civil works and design must align

  4. HVAC, the father of all hells, is life support

  5. Plan B saves projects

  6. Contracts matter as much as engineering

  7. The coordination nightmare

Let’s go:

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