South Africa’s status as a water-scarce country has received a lot of attention lately. Many parts of the country face extensive drought and water shortages, with Cape Town facing the very real possibility of becoming the first major city in the world to run out of water completely. One solution to the water crisis is desalination, where seawater is used to produce clean water for drinking, washing, and other such applications. However, desalination plants are very energy-intensive and difficult to justify financially.
One of the new desalination plants commissioned in the Western Cape Province will utilize the country’s abundant solar resources as a power source. The system will complement power from the national electricity grid for those days when the sun is not shining. Read the full story here, and see how solar technology made the project feasible.