Production at South Africa’s first solar-powered desalination plant has surpassed 10 000 kl of potable water – within its first two months of operation.

The plant at Witsand, Hessequa Municipality, in the Western Cape, has been fully operational since end-December 2018, supplying water to Witsand and the surrounding areas, which experience frequent water shortages, even outside of drought periods, according to the Western Cape government.

An average of 100 kl of potable water a day is produced with the help of solar energy. However, the plant is also connected to the local grid, meaning it is able to supply drinking water outside of sunlight hours, pushing its daily capacity up to 300 kl.

Co-funded by the Western Cape government through the country’s drought relief fund and the French Treasury, the plant uses reverse osmosis desalination technology.

The technology, OSMOSUN, was developed by the French firm Mascara Renewable Water and brought to South Africa by its local partner Turnkey Water Solutions. The Western Cape government notes that it’s a world-first in terms of ‘reverse osmosis desalination technology coupled with PV solar energy without batteries, designed to supply coastal or borehole-dependent communities with drinking water at a competitive price and without CO₂ emissions’.

5 March 2019
Image: Turnkey Water Solutions