The Victorian Desalination Plant plays a critical role in Melbourne’s water future. It was announced as a project during the Millennium Drought when water storage levels were critically low (16.5% in our largest reservoir), and can now deliver up to 150 billion litres of high-quality drinking water a year.
Who owns the desalination plant in Victoria?
Melbourne Water pays the owner of the plant, even if no water is ordered, $608 million a year.
Victorian Desalination Plant.
| Desalination plant | |
|---|---|
| Cost | A$5.7 billion (max) contracted to 2039 |
| Energy generation offset | Windfarm at Glenthompson (proposed) |
| Technology | Reverse Osmosis |
| Percent of water supply | Estimated 33% of Melbourne |
Which Australian cities have desalination plants?
Other Desalination Plants in Australia
- Visit the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant.
- Visit the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant.
- Visit the Gold Coast Desalination Plant.
- Visit the Victorian Desalination Plant.
- Visit the Adelaide Desalination Plant.
How much water has the Victorian Desalination Plant produced?
150 billion litres
The Victorian Desalination Plant can deliver up to 150 billion litres of high-quality drinking water a year. That’s one-third of Melbourne’s needs, or around 60,000 Olympic swimming pools.
How much desalinated water is supplied?
| Date | Desal contribution (ML) |
|---|---|
| 6 Dec 2022 | |
| 5 Dec 2022 | |
| 4 Dec 2022 | |
| 3 Dec 2022 |
Can you visit Victorian Desalination Plant?
The desalination plant itself cannot be accessed by the general public. However the VDP does run site tours for community groups or organisations that have formally pre-booked through the community contact line (1800 811 214).
What is the biggest desalination plant in Australia?
Wonthaggi plant
Wonthaggi plant is the largest desalination plant in Australia. The treated water from Wonthaggi is supplied to Melbourne’s water supply system through an underground pipeline. Aerial photograph of the plant’s construction site. The plant uses 100% renewable energy for its operation.
Which country has the best desalination plants?
The Hadera seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant in Israel is the largest seawater desalination plant in the world.
Which Australian city uses the most desalinated water?
Perth and Adelaide have relied most on desalination to date. Canberra, Hobart and Darwin are the only capitals without desalination.
How many desalination plants are in Australia?
270 desalination plants
There are about 270 desalination plants in Australia, most of them small-scale plants to desalinate seawater or brackish water for a range of uses.
Which state uses the most water in Australia?
state of Tasmania
During fiscal year 2021, over 33.5 million megaliters of water were consumed by industry, while around 34 thousand megaliters were consumed by households in the Australian state of Tasmania. While New South Wales had the highest household consumption of water, Tasmania had the highest consumption from industry.
What is the biggest problem with desalination?
Energy costs aside, one of the biggest concerns regarding desalination in the United States is brine waste. After ocean and brackish waters are stripped of salt and minerals to produce freshwater, the resulting byproduct contains very high salinity levels.
Why can’t desalination solve the water crisis?
Apart from the high energy consumption of desalination, another major problem is the salty residue left behind in this process, the brine. This water, which is extremely high in salt, other minerals and potentially chemicals too, is disposed of in the environment.
Why is desalination not sustainable?
Brine production and high-energy consumption are key downsides of desalination. Disposal of toxic brine is both costly and associated with negative environmental impacts.
Can you drink water from a desalination plant?
Generally, yes. Desalinated water, provided that it’s clean, is perfectly fine to drink, and a lot of it is already being consumed both in the United States and abroad. San Diego inaugurated a vast new desalination plant about six years ago and is on the verge of approving another.
Why are we not building desalination plants?
There’s the cost of building the facility, then there are the ongoing operational costs. The Pacific Institute’s research shows that seawater desalination costs nearly four times more than water importation, and five times as much as capturing and processing rainwater.
Who owns the desal plant?
SDP is jointly owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and Morrison & Co-managed Utilities Trust of Australia (UTA). The owners of the Sydney Desalination Plant are the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (60%) and Utilities Trust of Australia (40%).
How effective is desalination in Australia?
Around 40 per cent of the water that goes through the desalination plant comes out as fresh drinking water. The remainder, known as brine, is pumped back into the ocean.
Is desalination better than recycling water?
As their cities grow, though, there is a renewed focus on reusing wastewater. In Melbourne, analysis by Aurecon, an Asia-Pacific design and engineering group, has shown that recycling could be more efficient and palatable than desalination, which removes salt from seawater.
Which government built the desalination plant in Victoria?
On 30 July 2009, the Victorian Government awarded the Victorian Desalination Project contract to AquaSure to finance, build, maintain and operate the project for 30 years.
Why can’t UK desalinate sea water?
Is the cost of the process the main reason why desalination is not used more widely? Yes, but also there are environmental concerns also as the process of sea water abstraction can harm the fish.
Why don t more countries desalinate ocean water?
So why don’t we desalinate more to alleviate shortages and growing water conflicts? The problem is that the desalination of water requires a lot of energy. Salt dissolves very easily in water, forming strong chemical bonds, and those bonds are difficult to break.