Spain is making major investments in the construction of water desalination units, which are already producing 227 million liters of fresh water per day, which is emerging as a champion in the relevant technology not only in Europe but also in the world.
The major challenges from the water shortage of recent years, which have begun to make their appearance more and more intense in Europe and especially in Southern Europe including Greece, gave the country an impetus to take action.
About 100 large desalination plants have now been built in Spain, making the country a pioneer in Europe and one of the strongest forces in this technology around the world.
It is a practice followed by more and more countries around the world to meet their fresh water needs, from Australia to China to Israel.
The desalination plant in Torrevieja, Spain alone can supply 1.6 million people with clean water. The highest demand for households and visitors is expected in the summer, while at other times large quantities of this water are used to irrigate oranges, lemons and other crops.
Spain’s government subsidizes much of the costs of desalination, with farmers saying they pay around 45 euro cents for every cubic meter of water. Recently, Madrid announced the allocation of funds of 90 million euros for further expansion of this particular unit.
This expansion is expected to reach a total cost of 200 million euros. The desalination plant in Torrevieja is the largest of its kind in Europe.
Such desalination technologies require very large amounts of energy. The costs of running desalination plants – the so-called reverse osmosis that is the technology in plants like the one in Torrevieja – are reduced by using cheap solar energy.
Pioneers in this combination are Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, which also have oil revenues to finance such large investments, as well as abundant sunshine. Today the largest market for such combined technologies is that of Saudi Arabia, followed by the United Arab Emirates.
