Desalination first for SA
French Minister of State for Ecology Nicolas Hulot announced yesterday Paris would co-fund the first solar-powered desalination plant in the Western Cape.
The plant will be in the small town of Witsand in the Hessequa Municipality.
Funding for the R8.6 million project will be split evenly between France and the Western Cape government.
“The plant in Hessequa is a model that will be reproduced in France and South Africa,” Hulot said at the Western Cape government offices.
He said the technology had cleared the obstacle of using fossil fuel-derived energy to charge the batteries that traditionally operated desalination projects. Instead, the plant would be activated directly by solar panels.
“We have the same challenge in France. Desalination is one of the solutions, but it came at a cost ... it will increase global warming if you drink water produced with use of fossil fuels.”
Project manager Patrice Boyer said the plant would be up and running in October, pumping water into an existing reservoir in Hessequa, from which gravity would feed it into households in Witsand, which has a population of a few hundred people, and is 250km east of Cape Town.
Hessequa was chosen as a pilot site because it has existing infrastructure.
Boyer said the plant would shut down and start automatically, depending on available sunlight. It would produce an average of 100 kilolitres of potable water a day. “If a cloud passes, you hear [the plant] slowing down. Then, afterwards, it speeds up.”
The technology was produced by French renewable water company Mascara and uses reverse osmosis desalination run by photovoltaic solar energy, thereby allowing plants to run off-grid.
The first plant to use the technology was set up in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in 2016. Another has been commissioned on the Pacific island of Bora Bora and there are six in operation in Mozambique’s Gaza province.
The funding for the Hessequa project is part of assistance from France to the Western Cape as it battles drought.
Western Cape officials said yesterday recent rain has boosted dams to 50%, but the water crisis was not over. – ANA
The plant in Hessequa is a model that will be reproduced in France and South Africa.
Nicolas Hulot French minister of state for ecology