... an Diego was at the halfway point in the construction of a $1 billion desalination plant, slated to begin converting Pacific seawater into 50 million gallons of potable water daily by 2016. It will be the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere.
The amount of power consumed by these plants concerns environmentalists. Washington-based World Resources Institute, a think tank devoted to the environment, warns that the high power demands of desalination will encourage more coal-burning and urban smog in China’s northern cities.
Coal-powered desalination isn’t the only option. The Perth Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant, which opened in 2007 in Western Australia, draws energy from the state’s Emu Downs Wind Farm. And in January 2015, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned technology company Taqnia and Spanish energy company Abengoa announced construction of the world’s first solar-powered desalination plant, near Khafji.
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