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RIYADH: In regions with limited rainfall, desalination is a practical means of finding abundant water for agriculture and human consumption. However, the process of turning seawater into fresh water is extremely energy intensive.

Indeed, desalination is a significant contributor to carbon emissions in the water-scarce Arabian Peninsula. This is why Saudi Arabia has invested in green energy sources to power its desalination plants.

“Using renewable energies for desalination is essential as it contributes to reducing the operation’s carbon footprint and water production costs,” Sultan Al-Rajhi, spokesman for the Saudi Water Authority, told Arab News.

With freshwater resources scarce in a region with a rapidly growing population, desalination of seawater is essential to keep pace with demand, he added.

“Saudi Arabia depends on seawater desalination due to the nature of the desert climate, in which the presence of surface water and natural rivers is rare,” Al-Rajhi said.

In fact, desalination accounts for about 75 percent of the Kingdom’s water supply.

“Therefore, investment is being made in seawater desalination to meet the population demand and economic growth witnessed in the Gulf region as a whole.”

Every year, the Kingdom requires an average of 5.5 billion cubic meters of fresh water. The need for water is especially great during the Hajj and Umrah seasons, when over a million pilgrims arrive from around the world.

Home to more than 37 million people, the Kingdom is the world’s third largest consumer of water per capita. Agriculture alone accounts for about 84 percent of total water consumption.

Desalination is a complex process that involves removing salt and other impurities from seawater. Since the process requires a significant amount of energy, the adoption of renewable sources such as solar to power these facilities has become a top priority.

“To develop climate-resilient infrastructure for sustainable desalination, Saudi Arabia must prioritize innovative and renewable technologies,” Abdulaziz Daghestani, area sales director of water utilities and country director at Grundfos, told Arab News .

Grundfos is a Danish company that is working with regional countries to provide innovative pumping solutions for water supply, waste water management, heating and cooling and industrial processes.

According to Dagestan, the integration of advanced monitoring systems can help optimize desalination operations and increase efficiency.

“Using real-time data and analytics, we can improve water management practices and make timely adjustments to meet the changing and growing demand for human consumption and agriculture,” he said.

The Qatrah program, which means “point” in Arabic, was launched by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture in 2020 and aims to reduce excessive water use by eliminating waste and encouraging the conservation and reuse of existing freshwater.

Its objective is to reduce daily water consumption per capita from 263 liters to 150 liters by 2030. To do this, the ministry has created a unified framework, known as the National Water Strategy, for the country.

However, despite these efforts to improve the sustainability of water systems, desalination remains an essential means of meeting water demand, making the adoption of clean energy sources and efficient production techniques a critical priority.

The Al-Khafji Desalination Plant, located in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province, is the world’s largest solar-powered water desalination project, providing the region’s water demands through an innovative and environmentally friendly approach.

The plant can generate up to 90,000 cubic meters of fresh water per day using innovative technology created by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.

Its new solar saltwater reverse osmosis method uses a process known as ultrafiltration during the pre-treatment stage.

The method involves forcing seawater through a semi-permeable membrane that allows only water molecules to pass through, while blocking salt and other contaminants. The resulting purified water is then collected for distribution.

Since its launch in 2018, more than 7 million cubic meters of fresh water produced by the plant have already been used.

“The use of reverse osmosis technology is considered to have the lowest carbon emission rates as a result of increased energy efficiency through the development of this field in recent years,” said Al-Rajhi.

“The carbon emission rate per cubic meter in some desalination systems has been reduced by 91 percent compared to thermal desalination systems.

The sun is not the only source of renewable energy that can be used to power the desalination process.

“This is in addition to the future use of hydraulic turbines to convert the kinetic energy resulting from water flow into electricity to generate clean energy,” Al-Rajhi said.

This shift to renewables not only addresses the high energy costs associated with desalination, but also supports Saudi Arabia’s commitment to sustainable development.

Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme, has praised the Kingdom’s water conservation agenda, which is part of its environmental mission, the Saudi Green Initiative.

Saudi Arabia is right to prioritize “not over-extracting and being very smart about environmental management”.

“That is why we are quite impressed by the Saudi Green Initiative,” she told Arab News.

This transition to cleaner energy sources reflects a strategic decision to increase the Kingdom’s energy efficiency and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, while addressing the challenges posed by climate change.

The integration of renewable energy into desalination processes marks an important step towards achieving a more sustainable and environmentally conscious approach to water production.