Spain: Production of desalinated water will increase 50-fold to 2025

There are more than 700 desalination plants in Spain. Their always controversial installation is not recent – the first ones appeared almost 50 years ago.

The Agora in the Water Tribune was the location for three experts in this technology to explain how it works and clarify what, in their opinion, are false beliefs regarding desalination.

There are several ways of desalinating water: distillation and freezing – which were discarded years back due to their inefficiency; while membranes that use reverse osmosis are the only way to desalinate sea water. Juan María Sánchez (from Ecoagua) stated that all of these processes were designed because they already existed in nature and were studied as alternatives to transporting water by boat or techniques to create rainwater – particularly in Ceuta and the Canaries – in light of freshwater scarcity. 

The reverse osmosis process is questioned because of its high energy consumption and because of the CO2 emissions generated. Miguel Torres (from CEDEX) and Manuel Fariñas (from Acciona Water) explained that 15 kilowatts per hour are used to desalinate one cubic metre of water and desalination only occupies 0.66% of electric consumption in Spain. They asserted that in the next 5 years this consumption will be reduced to 2.65 kilowatt hours per cubic metre, which will also reduce CO2 emissions. At the same time, the number of desalination plants treating water will multiply in the next 17 years by 50 to reach 140 million cubic metres per day.