__NOTOC__
The Point Paterson Desalination Plant was a planned municipal-scale solar-powered
desalination plant
Desalination is a process that removes mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination is the removal of salts and minerals from a substance. One example is soil desalination. This is important for agriculture. It is possible ...
with land-based brine disposal near Point Paterson in the locality of
Winninowie in the
Australian state
The states and territories are the national subdivisions and second level of government of Australia. The states are partially sovereignty, sovereign, administrative divisions that are autonomous administrative division, self-governing polity, ...
of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
about south of the city centre of
Port Augusta
Port Augusta (''Goordnada'' in the revived indigenous Barngarla language) is a coastal city in South Australia about by road from the state capital, Adelaide. Most of the city is on the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, immediately south of the ...
.
[ The Point Paterson Project was to utilise a salt flat owned by a salt company but which has not been in use for solar salt production for decades. The plant would have integrated ]renewable energy
Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...
and desalination technologies to create environmentally-friendly electricity and water. In particular, the project would have significantly reduced the usual greenhouse impacts associated with grid electricity demand for desalination.[Solar-powered desalination plant leads the way]
/ref> The project had attracted the interest of internationally renowned climatologist, the late Professor Stephen Schneider, who joined the Board of Acquasol in 2006.gigalitres
The litre ( Commonwealth spelling) or liter (American spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metres (m3). A cubic ...
of water per year, enough to supply the needs of 34,000 people. Port Augusta (13,257 people) would receive 2 gigalitres per year free of cost during the first two years of the plant's operation. The plant would have been configured to expand if need be, with a potential output of 45 gigalitres per year.
Salt harvesting
As the plant was to be built on the site of a salt pan, brine
Brine (or briny water) is a high-concentration solution of salt (typically sodium chloride or calcium chloride) in water. In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawat ...
wastewater from the desalination process would be diverted onto the pan rather than pumped back into the gulf. Once the brine evaporates, the remaining salt was to be harvested and sold. The profits from the salt harvesting will be used to offset the cost of the desalination process while simultaneously preventing wastewater from being pumped back into the Spencer Gulf
The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe an ...
.
See also
* List of desalination plants in Australia
As a result of the water supply crisis during the severe 1997–2009 drought State governments around Australia began building desalination plants that purify seawater using reverse osmosis technology. Many of these plants have included in th ...
References
External links
Desal plant developer Acquasol is seeking funding from private investors. APRIL 07, 2010
{{coord, 32.6058, S, 137.802370, E, format=dms, display=title
Desalination plants in Australia
Proposed infrastructure in Australia
Port Augusta
Infrastructure in South Australia