WA's record-breaking dry spell has highlighted the state's need for desalination to provide a climate-resilient drinking water source. But the plants themselves are very energy intensive, and while they are supposed to be running on renewables, that has not been happening.
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00:00 Around half of Perth's drinking water comes from the Indian Ocean.
00:06 And that brings us here.
00:08 But the process of making it drinkable is extremely energy intensive.
00:12 The process of desalination is four times more energy intensive than groundwater collection
00:17 and over 40 times more energy intensive than water sourced from dams.
00:22 The Binningup desalination plant in the state's southwest supplies around 30% of Perth's
00:28 water.
00:29 It's supposed to run off renewable energy and when it doesn't, the Water Corp is supposed
00:33 to buy carbon offset credits to compensate for the fossil fuel use.
00:38 But that hasn't been happening for years.
00:41 And the state has not purchased a single offset credit.
00:44 It is millions of dollars behind.
00:46 The Water Corp says to address the shortfall it has a plan to buy more renewable energy
00:52 and buy or develop Australian carbon credits.
00:56 The state-owned business is also planning to develop the Flat Rocks wind farm in the
01:00 state's southeast, which would help power WA's two existing desalination plants as well
01:05 as the under-development Alkmos plant.
01:08 But the Water Corp has dumped plans for a $225 million investment in batteries.
01:14 Batteries was one of those things that we evaluated and we put a business case through
01:17 for that as an option and we continue to evaluate many other ways of reducing our carbon footprint.
01:25 The state's Water Minister says Perth's current low water supplies show the importance of
01:30 future planning.
01:32 We're starting to experience, just as climate scientists had predicted we might, a warmer
01:39 future for our state and a further drying of the southwest for the state.
01:44 The challenge for Water Corp is making sure it's not contributing to the problem.
01:49 [Swoosh]
01:50 [Silence]
01:50 (whooshing)
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