GWI: Desalination market on sharp growth curve

Despite rising prices, global contracted capacity for water desalination is on track to increase from 68 million cubic meters per day (m3/d) this year to 130 m3/d by 2016, according to a recent report by Global Water Intelligence (GWI; London, U.K.). The price of desalination had decreased during the four decades since reverse osmosis was invented in the mid-1960s, but since 2005, when the price of desalinated water had reached a low of $0.48/m3, prices have gone up, to about $1.03/m3. The rising prices reflect the fact that newer plants have become much more expensive to build, largely because of the growing need to address environmental concerns, the report said. Savings related to the greater energy efficiency of new desalination plants have failed to compensate for the increased capital cost of new plants, the report concluded.