Another 20% of Saudi Arabia’s electricity is used to desalinate sea water for drinking. About 60% of the water people use in their homes comes from the country’s 30 desalination plants (the rest comes from groundwater). Desalinating sea water is an extremely energy-intensive process, making it very expensive, but demand for desalinated water in Saudi Arabia continues to climb at a rate of roughly 14% per year according to the researchers (paywall), who called that upward trend “unsustainable.”
The problem is literally all of Saudi Arabia’s electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels, according to the researchers. The country is reportedly plotting a shift towards renewables, particularly solar, since it gets direct sunlight in abundance. But that’s still in the future. As of 2017, 100% of its energy came from fossil fuels; 59% from oil and 41% from natural gas.
No comments:
Post a Comment