Spanish company Almar Water Solutions and Chilean firm Trends Industrial have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a solar powered desalination project in the Atacama region in Chile.
Image: Officials from Almar Water Solutions and Trends Industrial. Photo: courtesy of ENAPAC Energías y Aguas del Pacífico.
The project, called Energías y Aguas del Pacífico (ENAPAC), is expected to be the first Multiclient desalination plant in Chile, and the largest in Latin America.
Estimated to cost $500m, the project comprises a seawater desalination project that will be supplied with its own source of photovoltaic energy.
Trends Industrial CEO Rodrigo Silva said: “The MoU comes to consolidate the work of several years in which we have developed a Sustainable project from the socio-environmental point of view, as well as from the economic perspective for the advantages of the Multiclient model of ENAPAC, in which economies of scale are taken advantage of, reduces the impact on the territory and improves efficiency, as we have been seeing in large-scale mining projects in Chile, which have opted for collaboration.”
The project, which is said to be one of the most advanced projects in the world that combines reverse osmosis desalination with solar energy, will have will have a maximum capacity of 2.600 l/s and will be powered by 100MW of solar energy.
Almar Water Solutions CEO Carlos Cosín said: “This alliance consolidates Almar’s interest in developing innovative and state-of-the-art technology projects combining desalination with solar energy, while at the same time sealing our commitment to the long-term success of the ENAPAC project, particularly with its potential clients to whom we can ensure the reliability of the water supply, which is so urgently needed in Atacama and for which we hope that ENAPAC will help alleviate, in part, the severe water scarcity in the region.”
The ENAPAC project is part of the list that is managed by the Office of Management of Sustainable Projects of the Chilean government Ministry of Economy.
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