2023-09-24 12:03:20
In an interview, Elon Musk said that the reduction of fresh water resources will not be a problem, since the desalination of seawater has now become extremely cheap. The famous American comedian and host Bill Maher recently interviewed Elon Musk. When Maher noted that we’re about to run out of fresh water, Musk responded that “70 percent of the Earth is water” and that desalination is now “absurdly cheap.” But how cheap is cheap? According to the Energy Monitor report, about 1% of the world’s drinking water is desalinated water, but when broken down by country, this proportion varies greatly, for example in Israel it is around 25%. Israel has five desalination plants, each capable of desalinizing approximately 200 billion liters of water per year. The plants produce water for $0.41 per cubic meter, which means that desalination of 1 liter of water costs only HUF 0.14. Israel is not the only country where such a high proportion of seawater is desalinated, in the United Arab Emirates, for example, one hundred percent of the residential water supply is desalinated water. It is also worth noting that there are approximately 186 desalination plants under construction or in the planning phase worldwide. The water supply from desalination is growing rapidly According to the Filtration and Separation portal, the cost of desalination in 2012 was $0.75 per cubic meter. In addition, hourly wages for unskilled workers in the sector have also fluctuated greatly, from $10.97 an hour in 2012 to $15.72 an hour by 2022, an increase of over 43%. The water supply from desalination grows at an annual rate of 10.22%, i.e. it doubles every seven years. And while the population is growing at an annual rate of 1.14%, desalination is growing almost nine times faster, and experts say this rate could increase further in the coming years.
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