South Africa unveils first solar powered desalination plant

South Africa in partnership with France has launched the first solar powered desalination plant at Witsand in the Hessaqua municipality, Western Cape.

This will be the fourth desalination plant project to be successfully set in the Western Cape.

The plant will produce 100kl of fresh water per day powered by the solar energy only, to address the normal local water requirement.

The installation of the desalination plant project will be based on the Osmosun technology which was developed by the French company Marcara Renewal Water in partnership with the TWS-Turkey Water Solution (local partner)

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The Osmosun technology is reported to be the first reversed osmosis desalination technology coupled with photovoltaic solar energy without batteries.

The solar-powered desalination plant project targets to produce water at a cost of R7 to R8 a kilo litre which is less than a quarter of the cost of water from Cape Town’s temporary desalination plant at Strandfontein.

At present, water from the Strandfontein plant, which is powered by diesel, costs between R35 and R40 a kiloliter.