Pass The Salt  

Not many people I know like Bob Carr much but I generally don't mind him and he does at least say the right things on most occasions. But this plan to build a desalination plant just doesn't seem wise to me - recycling the large amount of water we currently waste may be more expensive, but it seems a much better alternative in the long run.

Of course, large investors find it much easier to put money into a centralised operation like a desalination plant and generate a hefty return that can be securitised, floated on the market and generate plenty of fee income for the managers of the trust. So its always going to be an uphill battle trying to get a distributed alternative without the obvious profit generating mechanisms put into place.

Unfortunately this is just another example of "the complex web of interdependency" the peak energy world complains about periodically.

A $2 billion desalination project to convert ocean water into drinking water will be unveiled today by Premier Bob Carr as the answer to Sydney's long-term water problems. The plant, to be built as a partnership between the State Government and private investors, is likely to be located at Matraville or Bondi after a site at Manly's North Head was rejected.

The report is expected to show a Sydney plant could be in operation within two to three years to supply 500 million litres of drinking water a day, a third of Sydney's supply.

The oceanfront desalination project will be historic for three reasons: It marks a backflip by the "green" Mr Carr, who once derided desalinated water as "bottled electricity" because its production relies on heavy and expensive use of energy. Water rates will soar because the cost of producing desalinated water is up to 10 times higher than dam water produced by rainfall. It will bring private investors such as Macquarie Bank into the water industry for the first time, making certain that the era of cheap public water is over.

Six weeks ago NSW water experts inspected the $390 million saltwater desalination project in Western Australia which will produce 144 megalitres a day when it comes on line in October next year.

The WA plant, which is being built by Degremont of France and Multiplex, is a third of the size of the proposed Sydney plant and will provide about 17 per cent of Perth's drinking water.

One of Cabinet's desalination backers, Minister for Energy and Utilities Frank Sartor, said last week: "We can't afford to risk Sydney's water supply by turning our back on desalination and just praying for rain. "We must be prepared if dam levels drop to 30 per cent."