The new Catalan government rules out the construction of the floating desalination plant in the port of Barcelona, one of the measures planned by the previous ERC Executiu to provide water to the Barcelona region if the drought were to reach a very advanced stage. The general director of Water Transition, Concha Zorrilla, has advanced this decision in statements to Catalunya Ràdio.
“The Government rules out, in principle, the Port’s floating desalination plant because it has a significant technological risk; It is not an installation that you can find on the market. It should be designed again, it would be “a bit of an invention.” Where do they have it? They have them in Saudi Arabia, and we don’t know for sure how they are working,” explains Zorrilla.
It would take a year and a half
The general director adds that, in addition to the technological risk, there is a risk of meeting deadlines. “If everything is going well, if we ordered it now urgently, we wouldn’t have it in a year and a half,” he adds.
He also indicated that there is “a significant economic risk” since an investment of 100 million euros would have to be amortized, the recovery of which is not clarified, and you would be tied to a contract like this one, and in which water costs 10 euros per cubic meter. ”.
All this has been valued in these months, in which “we have learned”
“When we lack the knowledge to ensure that it is done in a certain way, then you have to learn from what is going to be a flagship… the best answer is to move towards more proven solutions,” he stressed to bet on conventional desalination plants as they are working. .
The announcement by the then councillor, David Mascort
The Minister of Climate Action, David Mascort, announced in April that the Generalitat would install a floating desalination plant in the Port of Barcelona to be used in case the drought worsened in the region of Barcelona and Girona, and an emergency was entered in grade II, which, according to his forecasts, could occur this October if it had not rained.
The decision was adopted at the same time that the Government ruled out the use of ships from Sagunt. The floating desalination plant could supply equivalent to 6% of the water consumption in the Barcelona area (specifically, in the area of 27 nearby municipalities).
At that time it was announced that desalinated water in the port of Barcelona could provide 40,000 cubic meters of water per day, compared to the considered option of ships, which would only provide between 20,000 and 25,000 cubic meters (without a ship being able to arrive. daily). In total there were 14.4 cubic hectometers per year (6% of the consumption in those 27 metropolitan municipalities).
The economic advantages that are no longer economic
The cost of desalinated water is also much cheaper than that of boats, the minister said. The total estimated cost would be about 4.4 euros per cubic meter, which rises to 6 euros per cubic meter including depreciation, while the cost of water for ships was around 10 euros per cubic meter.
On the contrary, the cost of producing desalinated water, for example in El Prat, is 1 euro per cubic meter, including all costs, while conventional purification, which is applied when the resource comes from reservoirs, It is around 0.10 or 0.20 euros per cubic meter.
Source: www.lavanguardia.com
