Quote:why dont they use such or even open channeling to bring ocean water to deserts- mine the salt, use the endless supply of water, lower ocean levels slightly- egypt and israel have both thought of doing so-not sure why neither followed through.
Sometimes the simplest answer is obvious and non-conspiratorial.
Occam's Law prevails again!
Quote:Energy is key
https://www.livescience.com/4510-desalination-work.html
But even with membranes, large amounts of energy are needed to generate the high pressure that forces the water through the filter. Current methods require about 14 kilowatt-hours of energy to produce 1,000 gallons of desalinated seawater.
A typical American uses 80 to 100 gallons of water a day, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The entire country consumes about 323 billion gallons per day of surface water and another 84.5 billion gallons of ground water.
If half of this water came from desalination, the United States would need more than 100 extra electric power plants, each with a gigawatt of capacity.
Depending on local energy prices, 1,000 gallons of desalinated seawater can cost around $3 or $4. Although that might not seem like much, it is still cheaper in many places to pump water out of the ground or import it from somewhere else.
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