PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Water scarcity is an escalating global challenge, with nearly 1.5 billion people worldwide living in areas with high, or extremely high, water vulnerability. In Europe, around 20% of the land area and 30% of the population are affected by water stress. Droughts cause up to €9 billion of losses annually, primarily affecting agriculture, the energy sector and public water supplies. In many regions, including islands, water supply is restricted during dry seasons when reservoirs cannot meet year-round demand. These impacts are particularly severe in tourist areas, where demand for this resource spikes during the dry summer months.
In recent years, seawater desalination plants have become a key way of meeting these demands, especially in Mediterranean countries. While desalination is a steadily growing industry, traditional onshore approaches face several significant challenges:
- they are highly energy- and carbon-intensive
- brine disposal near the shore can significantly increase salinity and water temperature.
- coastal and island regions often face land availability constraints.
- solar and wind energy production require substantial land area.
The situation in Spain's islands in Macaronesia is a notable example of the limitations of traditional desalination plants. The cost of desalinated water from conventional plants remains high, mainly due to their substantial energy consumption. Additionally, desalination systems that depend on grid electricity are increasingly affected by surges in energy prices. Improving efficiency through technological advancements is essential to address these challenges.
Although several offshore desalination solutions, powered by renewable energy, are currently being tested, their production capacities remain low (less than 100 cubic metres (m³)/day).
OBJECTIVES
The primary objective of DESALIFE is to qualify, demonstrate and validate a groundbreaking zero-emission desalination technology by piloting a small fleet of full-scale desalination buoys at the Arucas-Moya desalination plant in the Canary Islands. This will involve:
- fine-tuning and constructing a full-scale prototype buoy that can be demonstrated in an operational environment in the first part of 2-stage pilot
- in a second stage, the design will be modularised to optimise the manufacturing process, and 3 additional pre-commercial units will be produced
- operating the units under market conditions similar to those expected at real-world commercial facilities.
The DESALIFE buoys will operate in areas of lower biological significance compared to onshore and nearshore desalination plants. The buoys will discharge brine in deeper waters, about 1 270 metres offshore, where waves and currents will rapidly dilute and disperse it. This is to minimise potential harm to biodiversity.
The goal is to achieve full commercial readiness at technology readiness level 8 and assess the technology’s social, environmental and economic impact. Replication and scaling strategy will be developed to enable the immediate deployment of additional buoys once the technology reaches market maturity in the post-project phase.
RESULTS
The project’s expected results are as follows:
- Each project buoy is expected to produce 500 m³ of freshwater per day. With 4 buoys operational by the end of the project, they will produce 2 000 m³ of fresh water daily – equivalent to the daily water consumption of approximately 15 000 households.
- The desalination process will be powered entirely by renewable energy, with the buoys harnessing wave energy and solar panels and supplying power to the onshore control facilities.
- This approach will prevent the emission of 2 378 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
- The project will produce an estimated 1.8 GWh of excess energy per year by the end of the project. This is based on the 4 buoys producing 2 000 m³ of freshwater per day and an energy consumption of 2.5 kWh per m³ of desalinated water.
- Each buoy will reduce land use compared to an equivalent onshore photovoltaic desalination plant by 3 450 m².
- Assuming an energy price of €70 per MWh (7 cents per kWh), the 4 buoys, running at 98% capacity, are expected to save approximately €190 296 annually in energy costs by the project's end.