With Malta using the very costly reverse osmosis method for the production of the vast majority of its freshwater requirements, the country is the victim of a double whammy in that freshwater production consumes large amounts of electricity on top of the costs associated with pumping clean water to our taps. This week, the European Commission pointed out that a viable, significantly cheaper, alternative exists.
And the alternative, according to EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, is wind-based desalination, which, he said: “is significantly cheaper than fossil fuel-based desalination”.
The statement came this week in answer to a parliamentary question tabled by Maltese MEP David Casa, who asked the Commission: “In reaction to growing risks of water scarcity and with the aim of ensuring water security in the long term, water providers in European countries, including Malta, are increasingly resorting to desalination to cover freshwater needs. However, concerns have been voiced over the energy intensity of this technology, which could jeopardise the EU’s energy reduction targets.
“Has the Commission considered any investments in more energy efficient technologies that could make desalination processes more environmentally friendly?”
Commissioner Oettinger this week, in reply, answered that since 2002, wind-based desalination technology has been “ready for deployment” and that it is “significantly cheaper than fossil fuel based desalination”.
“Within the fifth research framework programme (1998-2002), the Commission supported several projects on sustainable communities and green hotels. Within these projects a few consortia have successfully demonstrated the positive direct coupling of wind turbines with membrane desalination – ideal for the Mediterranean because of its lower salinity compared to the Atlantic,” he explained.
“The desalinated water is stored in plastic bags in the sea; very large volumes can be obtained at extremely low costs. The pumps can be operated in a variety of modes and can thus follow the variable wind. This causes zero stress on the local electricity grid.”
Cyprus, which assumed the EU presidency on 1 July, plans to make water management an issue. “Environmental issues are more important than economic issues”, the country’s Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sofoclis Aletraris said this week.
To cope with recurrent droughts, Cyprus currently desalinates water in four plants, and another two are under construction. Critics cite extra energy and CO2 costs, as well as the impact of discharging brine into the sea, which Aletraris said was strictly monitored.
“I admit there is a cost, a financial cost and to the environment, but Cyprus is a small island surrounded by sea water. It does not have any other alternatives. You cannot afford to go through the trouble that we had in 2008. It was a nightmare,” he said.
“The reservoirs were completely empty. It’s about the economy as well and tourism – you can’t tell tourists they can only have a shower every other day.”