First solar powered desalination plant in the works

HydroRevolution, a subsidiary of WaterFX, will be building a $30 million dollar desalination plant in the Central Valley. The operation will run solely on solar energy and is a partnership in conjunction with the Panoche Water and Drainage District in Firebaugh. WaterFX is building the project on 35 acres of the water district’s land, although it has the potential to expand to 70 acres.

This new plant will take unusable irrigation water and treat it, where more traditional desalination plants use seawater and turn it into suitable drinking water. The water, as is, is undrinkable because the minerals from irrigation runoff have collected in the pipes over the years in the 44,000 acres of farmland that surround the proposed plant area. HydroRevolution estimates that about 1 million-acre feet of irrigation runoff occur each year.

Operators are hoping to begin producing clean water by summer of 2016. Based on projections, the plant will be able to produce 5,000 acre-feet of water per year, enough water to supply 10,000 homes or 2,000 acres of cropland.

Back in 2013, WaterFX operated a demonstration plant for the water district. This new project is considered an expansion of that initial plant.

“The demonstration plant proved that we can reliably treat drainage water and also showed that the treated water is not a waste product; it is a valued new source of fresh water,” HydroRevolution Chairman Aaron Mandell said in a release.

Because of the California drought, this desalination plant is being looked at as a potential new source for clean water.

“Given the trend of highly uncertain inputs from the Delta, we need to develop a reliable supply of water in the Central Valley. This is a sustainable solution that can provide a substantial amount of additional water,” Panoche Water and Drainage District manager Dennis Falaschi said in a statement. “After seeing the results from the demonstration plant by WaterFX, we’re eager to get the HydroRevolution Plant online quickly and are optimistic about seeing others replicate what we’re doing here. There is an enormous resource of subsurface water that can be utilized.”

HydroRevolution is hoping this new plant can provide a new source of clean water to the Central Valley. Eventually, they would like to build similar plants throughout region to help communities who are desperate for water due to the California drought.