Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1056083
Australia turns to desalination amid climate changes A new report by Australia's Climate Council highlights the degree to which the country's water challenges and spend on desalination are bound up with low rainfall, drought, and ooding. Deluge and Drought: Australia's Water Security in a Changing Climate, claims that the Millennium Drought – a period of more than a decade of low rainfall, extreme dry weather, and drought, from the late 1990s to 2010 – prompted signi- cant investment in desalination plants. These were particularly to serve urban populations whose natural water sources were badly depleted. "They were extremely costly to construct and are more expensive to operate than traditional catchment water supplies, highlighting one of the signi- cant economic costs of climate change- induced impacts on water security," the reports says. The Climate Council is a community-funded organisation peopled by climate scientists whose mission is to provide an independent voice on climate change, placing stories in the media, producing reports, and calling out misinformation. ZERO MASS WATER DEMONSTRATES OFF- GRID ADSORPTION TECHNOLOGY IN NSW Arizona based start-up Zero Mass Water installed 150 Source Hydropanels at 30 sites in New South Wales to demonstrate the technology in a range of environmental conditions. The demo ran from February to August 2018. The panels draw in water from ambient air through fans and adsorb it onto special material. The water is then desorbed into an air-tight system, condensed, remineralised, and polished. The value of the demonstration project was $871,000, of which $420,000 was provided by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. The aim was to show the technology's ability in providing drinking water to rural locations that are off -grid, and to measure the reduction in reliance on bottled water. The smallest installations, on homes, consisted of two Source Hydropanels producing a minimum 200 litres of drinking water a month. Larger installations, on restaurants, sports centres, and eco-resorts, generated up to fi ve times more than the household systems. PILOT PROJECT OUTCOMES The panels are now available commercially in New South Wales. Customers are mostly households and businesses that want to improve the quality of their drinking water supplies and to reduce reliance on single-use plastic bottles. Zero Mass Water adds that it is "actively working with larger stakeholders in Australia who are looking to achieve similar outcomes in regional towns, farms, sustainable buildings and remote mine sites." December 2018 Water.desalination+reuse In Site 21 THE SIZE OF AUSTRALIA'S WATER SECTOR Total revenues from sales of water and provision of water services in Australia amounted to $17.7 billion in the year 2015-16. The urban water sector accounts for 0.75 per cent of gross domestic product, with assets of $160 billion as of 1 July 2015, and annual capital expenditure of $3.5 to $4.5 billion a year. 57% 39% 4% Households, $10.1 billion Industry, $6.9 billion Primary industry including agriculture, $689 million Source: Deluge and Drought: Australia's Water Security in a Changing Climate, November 2018 climate changes A new report by Australia's Climate Council highlights the degree to which the country's water challenges and spend on desalination are bound up with low rainfall, drought, and ooding. Australia's Water Security in a Changing Climate $10.2 bn The capital cost of Australia's six desalination plants installed between 2006 and 2012