California's largest solar-powered desalination plant under construction

If you want to take a shower in West Porterville, California, you may have to use a bucket instead. The fact is that water has not been flowing here to most houses for more than a year. But farmers nearby pay to get rid of excess water, and we are talking about millions of liters.

This paradox is due to the geological features of the region: the soil in the Central Valley is highly mineralized. This creates problems every time a farmer plans to irrigate a field - runoff saturated with salts will cause significant harm to the region’s biosystem. That is why there are serious restrictions on the use of water. However, desalination can solve all these problems.

And now it is here that it is planned to build the country's largest desalination plant, which will receive solar energy (thermal). There will be enough desalinated water for 10,000 local households or field irrigation with a total area of ​​810 hectares.



Most modern desalination plants are used to convert sea or ocean water into drinking water. But the company WaterFX from California plans to build a station for other purposes, as mentioned above.



“Our philosophy is from small to large. In order to get significant changes in the region, we will not build a multi-billion dollar station, as in San Diego. Instead, we will build thousands and thousands of small stations throughout the Central Valley, ”a company spokesman said. At the same time, the first station is still quite large - it is the largest desalination plant using solar energy in the country.

Each small or medium farm will thus be able to obtain its own desalination station, for desalination, which will be used for irrigation. Initially, the focus will be on the largest farms in the region that have a drainage water collection system. Further, the company plans to cooperate with telecommunication companies that use huge volumes of water to cool servers.

At a certain stage, the company will begin working with small farms, creating fully automated desalination systems. At the same time, WaterFX stations use only the energy of the Sun, without requiring a supply of energy. Mineral compounds, which will be obtained during desalination, are also planned to be put into operation.



Now the company is building the country's largest solar water desalination plant, a test sample has already been tested in the work. It is interesting that anyone can invest in this company, and in the future, each investor will be paid "dividends", as the desalinated water is sold.

If the system performs well, the company will begin to work in other countries, and not just in the United States.